Methods and apparatus to impute media consumption behavior

ABSTRACT

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to impute media consumption behavior are disclosed. An example method includes calculating, by executing an instruction with a processor, first viewing probabilities for tuning panelists in a tuning household. The example method also includes calculating, by executing an instruction with the processor, second viewing probabilities for viewing panelists in a plurality of learning households having a same household size as the tuning household. The example method also includes identifying, by executing an instruction with the processor, a matching one of the plurality of learning households based on a difference between the first viewing probabilities and respective ones of the second viewing probabilities.

RELATED APPLICATION

This patent claims the benefit of, and priority from, Indian PatentApplication No. 201611019573, entitled “Viewer Assignment Enhancements,”which was filed on Jun. 7, 2016. Indian Patent Application No.201611019573 is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to audience measurement and, moreparticularly, to methods and apparatus to improve viewer assignment byadjusting for a localized event.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, panelist research efforts included associating accessedmedia content with household members that fit one or more demographicsof interest using installed metering hardware. In some cases, themetering hardware is capable of determining whether a media presentationdevice (such as a television set) is powered on and tuned to a specifiedstation via a hardwired connection from the media presentation device tothe meter. In other cases, the metering hardware is capable ofdetermining which household member is exposed to a specified portion ofmedia via one or more button presses on a People Meter by the householdmember near the television. Collected information from the differenttypes of meters provides insight to the various factors influencingmedia consumption behavior habits of viewers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example media distribution environment implementedin accordance with the teachings of this disclosure to improve viewerassignment by adjusting for a localized event.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the examplelocalized event engine of FIG. 1, which is structured to analyzepanelist data for localized event media consumption behavior.

FIGS. 3-11 are flowcharts representative of example machine-readableinstructions that may be executed by the example viewer assignmentengine of FIG. 1 and/or the example localized event engine of FIGS. 1and/or 2 to improve viewer assignment by adjusting for a localizedevent.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an example processor platform structuredto execute the machine-readable instructions of FIGS. 3-11 to implementthe example viewer assignment engine of FIG. 1 and/or the examplelocalized event engine of FIGS. 1 and/or 2.

Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughoutthe drawing(s) and accompanying written description to refer to the sameor like parts.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Audience measurement entities seek to understand the audiencecomposition and/or size of media, such as radio programming, televisionprogramming, Internet media, etc., so that advertising prices may beestablished that are commensurate with audience exposure and/ordemographic makeup (referred to herein collectively as “audienceconfiguration”). As used herein, the term “media” includes any type ofcontent and/or advertisement delivered via any type of distributionmedium. Thus, media includes television programming or advertisements,radio programming or advertisements, movies, web sites, streaming media,etc. Example methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture disclosedherein monitor media presentations at media devices. Such media devicesmay include, for example, Internet-enabled televisions, personalcomputers, Internet-enabled mobile handsets (e.g., a smartphone), videogame consoles (e.g., Xbox®, PlayStation®), tablet computers (e.g., aniPad®), digital media players (e.g., a Roku® media player, a Slingbox®,etc.), etc.

Media providers employ a wide variety of media platforms to presentmedia to audiences. Media providers may include media broadcastingproviders (e.g., ABC®, CBS®, NBC®, etc.), streaming media providers(e.g., Hulu®, Netflix®), etc. Media platforms may include media deliverymethods such as, for example, coaxial cable, digital subscriber line(DSL), fiber cable, satellite delivered cable television programming,wired and/or wireless streaming to the above-described media devices,etc. Media providers may present media via separate media channelsand/or media stations. A media channel and/or a media station mayinclude a channel on set-top box television programming (e.g., Channel1, 2, etc.), a channel on streaming services and/or websites (e.g., aHulu® channel, a YouTube® channel, etc.), an application (e.g., astand-alone application and/or browser) on a mobile operating system(e.g., Android® operating system, Apple iOS® operating system, etc.)etc. For example, a media provider (e.g., ESPN®) may deliver a sportingevent to a customer via a set-top box “ESPN” media station (e.g., aset-top box media station 37 corresponding to the ESPN® media station),via the “WatchESPN” application on a mobile device, via a websitewww.ESPN.com, etc. As used herein, the terms “media channel” and “mediastation” are used interchangeably.

To determine aspects of audience configuration (e.g., which householdmember is currently watching a specified portion of media, thecorresponding demographics of that household member, etc.), audiencemeasurement entities may perform audience measurement by enlisting anumber of consumers as panelists. As used herein, panelists are users(e.g., audience members) registered on panels maintained by a ratingsentity (e.g., an audience measurement company). An audience measuremententity typically monitors media consumption behaviors (e.g., tuning,viewing, etc.) of the enlisted audience members via audience measurementsystem(s), such as a metering device, a people meter, etc. Audiencemeasurement typically involves identifying media being displayed on amedia presentation device, such as a television.

As described above, audience measurement entities may employ audiencemeasurement systems including a device, such as the people meter (PM),having a set of inputs (e.g., one or more user input buttons) that areeach assigned to a corresponding member of a household. The PM devicecaptures information about the household audience by prompting theaudience member(s) to indicate that they are present in the mediaexposure area (e.g., a living room in which a television set is present,etc.) during media presentation by, for example, pressing their assignedinput key on the PM device. When a member of the household selects theircorresponding input, the PM device identifies which household member ispresent, and associates demographic information associated with thehousehold member, such as a name, a gender, an age, an income category,etc. with the media presentation.

Data collected by the PM device may be stored in a memory andtransmitted via one or more networks, such as the Internet, to a datastore managed by an audience measurement entity such as The NielsenCompany (US), LLC. Typically, such data is aggregated by the audiencemeasurement entity with data collected from a large number of PM devicesmonitoring a large number of panelist households. Such collected and/oraggregated data may be further processed to determine statisticsassociated with household behavior in one or more designated marketareas (DMA) of interest. An example DMA of interest may be a city, astate, a time zone, a country, or another measure of geographical ornumerical size as it pertains to monitoring media activity.

Another example of how audience measurement entities may employ audiencemeasurement systems to collect household panelist behavior data isthrough the utilization of a media meter (MM) device. Example MM devicesdisclosed herein are distinguished from PM devices that include aphysical input to be selected by a panelist household member activelyconsuming the media. In examples disclosed herein, MM devices captureaudio with or without a physical connection to the media presentationdevice. In some examples, MM device do not include one or more inputsfor selection by one or more household panelists to identify whichpanelist is currently viewing the media device. Rather than collectingaudience composition data directly from panelists, example methods,apparatus, systems and/or articles of manufacture disclosed hereinimpute which household members are viewers of media programming inhouseholds with the MM device. For example, disclosed examplesfacilitate a manner of determining which panelist household members areviewing media in a manner that avoids the expense of additional PMdevice installation in panelist households.

Audience measurement (AM) systems, as described above, use various typesof metering devices for associating and/or crediting media viewing to ademographic identifying a panelist that viewed the media. An example AMsystem can utilize PM devices, MM devices, and/or alternative meteringdevices. An example AM system that includes PM devices and MM devicesmatches panelist media consumption behavior obtained from PM devices topanelist media consumption behavior obtained from MM devices using amodel derived from a variety of example mathematical, probabilistic,and/or statistical techniques.

In examples disclosed herein, example panelist data is analyzed forhousehold behavior statistics such as, for example, a number of minutesa household media device tuned to a specified media station (e.g.,tuning minutes), a number of minutes a household media device used(e.g., viewing minutes) by a household panelist member (e.g., a uniquelyidentified viewing panelist) and/or one or more visitors, demographicsof an audience, which may be statistically projected based on thepanelist data, etc. Additional example household behavior statistics mayinclude a number of minutes an example media presentation device (e.g.,a household media playback device) presented media, wherein the examplemedia presentation device may be operative in a household that maycontain a PM device and/or an MM device. As used herein, the term mediapresentation device may refer to a household media device that ispresenting media and/or exposing panelists to media in a media exposureenvironment in which the household media device may be tuned to a mediastation and/or may be viewed by a panelist. For example, the terms“media presentation device minutes” and “exposure minutes” includetuning minutes and/or viewing minutes.

Example households that include a PM device (e.g., learning households)collect media consumption behavior, referred to herein as “donor data.”As used herein, “donor data” refers to information that includes both(1) media identification data (e.g., code(s) embedded in or otherwisetransmitted with media, signatures, channel tuning data, etc.) and (2)person identifying information corresponding to the household member(s)and/or visitor(s) that are watching, viewing, listening to and/orotherwise accessing the identified media. Example households thatinclude an MM device (e.g., tuning households) collect mediaidentification data, referred to herein as “recipient data.” As usedherein, “recipient data” refers to information that includes mediaidentification data (e.g., codes, signatures, etc.), but does notinclude person identifying information. The terms “donor data” and“recipient data” may collectively be referred to herein as “exposuredata.” Example learning households and example tuning households includepanelists, which are demographically identified members of theirrespective households. As described above, at least one distinguishingfactor between donor data and recipient data is that donor data alsoincludes information that identifies which specified household member isresponsible for consuming media (e.g., person identifying information).

In some examples, example AM systems may use the media consumptionbehavior obtained from PM devices located in learning households tocalculate viewing probabilities for viewing panelists. For example,donor data collected from PM devices may be used to determineprobabilities that the viewing panelists of a specified demographicwithin the learning households viewed the media on media presentationdevices associated with the viewing panelists. Example AM systems maycollect and/or organize donor data from PM devices in time periodsand/or time intervals such as a quarter-hour (fifteen (15) minute) timeperiod.

Example AM systems may additionally and/or alternatively use mediaconsumption behavior obtained from MM devices located in tuninghouseholds to calculate tuning probabilities for tuning panelists. Forexample, disclosed examples may use recipient data collected from MMdevices to determine probabilities that the tuning panelists of aspecified demographic within the tuning households tuned to the media onmedia presentation devices associated with the tuning panelists. In someexamples, AM systems collect and/or organize recipient data from MMdevices in time periods such as a quarter-hour (fifteen (15) minute)time period.

In some examples, AM systems may use viewing probabilities and tuningprobabilities in a matching process to match viewing panelists withtuning panelists that exhibit similar media consumption behavior. Forexample, example matching processes may use viewing probabilitiescalculated for a plurality of viewing panelists of a specifieddemographic or a plurality of specified demographics within a pluralityof learning households. The example matching processes may also usetuning probabilities calculated for a plurality of tuning panelists ofthe same specified demographic within two or more tuning households. Forexample, example AM systems may match media consumption behaviorassociated with a tuning panelist in a tuning household with mediaconsumption behavior associated with a viewing panelist in a learninghousehold. Example AM systems may then impute the tuning panelist tuningminutes as the viewing panelist viewing minutes. For example, example AMsystems may identify the tuning panelist by imputing (e.g., associating)the demographics of the tuning panelist as the demographics of theviewing panelist. Identifying the tuning panelist in this example mannermay allow the identification of tuning panelists without the addedexpense of distributing additional PM devices and inconveniencingpanelists by eliciting active acknowledgments of their consumption ofmedia as in learning households.

In some disclosed examples, AM systems may narrow the number ofhouseholds of interest to process by identifying qualified households.As used herein, a qualified household is a household that satisfies oneor more specified demographics and/or filtering parameters of interestfor a DMA being processed by an audience measurement entity. Acollection of qualified households designated for processing mayrepresent an example household pool (e.g., a learning household pool, atuning household pool, etc.) that contains example panelists (e.g.,viewing panelists, tuning panelists, etc.). A learning household poolmay include, for example, a number of panelists in learning householdswithin a DMA (or DMAs) of interest. Similarly, a tuning household poolmay include, for example, a number of panelists in tuning householdswithin a DMA (or DMAs) of interest. Example qualified households may beequipped with one or more metering devices such as PM devices and/or MMdevices. However, an example household pool may or may not includequalified households. Moreover, during an example matching process, insome instances, there may not be enough qualified learning households tomatch to the number of qualified tuning households. In some suchinstances, example AM systems may determine to expand the learningpanelist pool (e.g., analyze additional DMA) to identify enoughqualified learning households to match with qualified tuning households.

In some disclosed examples, expanding the learning panelist pool bycollecting panelist data from one or more additional DMA(s) may produceimputation errors due to a localized event within a DMA. The localizedevent may be an event occurring in the DMA and/or of greater importanceto panelists in the DMA as opposed to other DMAs. In some examples, thelocalized event may be presented as media on a media station that may beviewed by panelists in the DMA, while in other DMAs, the same mediastation may be presenting different media than the media in the DMA. Theaudience configuration of the panelists exposed to the localized eventmay be significantly different than the audience configuration of thesame media station in a different DMA. For example, the localized eventmay attract a significantly greater number of panelists to the mediastation presenting the localized event than the number of panelists thesame media station attracts in another DMA with different media.

An example of such a localized event may include a broadcast of aprofessional football game featuring the Philadelphia Eagles within afirst example DMA (e.g., Philadelphia). A number of tuning panelistswithin the first example DMA (e.g., Philadelphia) may be accessing firstexample media (e.g., the professional football game) on a first examplemedia station (e.g., ABC Philadelphia) during a time period. Inaddition, a number of viewing panelists within a second example DMA(e.g., New York City) may be accessing second example media (e.g.,“Dancing with the Stars”) on a second example media station (e.g., ABCNational TV media station) during the same time period. In some suchexamples, the media consumption behavior and/or audience configurationof tuning panelists in the first example DMA (e.g., Philadelphia) maydiffer from the media consumption behavior and/or audience configurationof viewing panelists in the second example DMA (e.g., New York City).

In the illustrated examples, the panelists in a DMA where the localizedevent is occurring may exhibit a biased media consumption behavior infavor of the localized event. As used herein, biased media consumptionbehavior in favor of the localized event is referred to as “local biasmedia consumption behavior” or a “local bias.” As used herein, the term“local bias media consumption behavior” is used interchangeably with theterm “localized event media consumption behavior.”

In some disclosed examples, imputation errors (e.g., a local bias) mayoccur due to a localized event, for example, when attempting to matchtuning panelists in tuning households in the first example DMA (e.g.,Philadelphia) to viewing panelists in learning households in the secondexample DMA (e.g., New York City). A discrepancy between the firstaudience configuration and the second audience configuration may producean imbalance of available panelists during an example matching processof tuning panelists in tuning households and viewing panelists inlearning households, which may lead to example imputation errors.

As disclosed above, an example imbalance (e.g., an age imbalance, agender imbalance, etc.) between tuning panelists in tuning householdsand viewing panelists in learning households may produce imputationerrors between a first audience configuration associated with panelistswho accessed the first media (e.g., the professional football game) viathe first media station (e.g., ABC Philadelphia) within the first DMA(e.g., Philadelphia) and a second audience configuration associated withpanelists who accessed the second media (e.g., “Dancing with the Stars”)via the second media station (e.g., ABC National TV Station) within thesecond DMA (e.g., New York City). For example, the first audienceconfiguration may be skewed towards a first example end of an audienceconfiguration spectrum (e.g., a greater percentage of male panelists),while the second audience configuration may be skewed towards a secondexample end of the audience configuration spectrum (e.g., a greaterpercentage of female panelists). However, other example audienceconfigurations and/or example demographic configurations mayadditionally or alternatively be determined, such as an example audienceconfiguration heavily skewed towards younger viewers, an exampleaudience configuration heavily skewed towards married viewers, etc.

In some examples, the first audience configuration of the tuningpanelists in tuning households may be unknown, while the second audienceconfiguration of the viewing panelists in learning households may beknown. To determine the first audience configuration, disclosed examplesmay use the second audience configuration as a basis to identify thefirst audience configuration. Although, the second audienceconfiguration of the viewing panelists in learning households may beknown to skew towards the second example end of the audienceconfiguration spectrum (e.g., greater percentage of female panelists),example AM systems disclosed herein may use the second audienceconfiguration to determine the identity of the first audienceconfiguration because (1) the first audience configuration is unknownand, therefore, may have a similar audience configuration to the secondaudience configuration, and (2) the first example media station (e.g.,ABC Philadelphia) and the second example media station (e.g., ABCNational TV media station) are affiliated with or related to one another(e.g., both media stations are owned and/or operated by ABC) and mayproduce similar audience configurations.

In some examples, estimating the first audience configuration of thetuning panelists in tuning households based on the second audienceconfiguration may produce an example first audience configurationestimation skewed towards the second end of the audience configurationspectrum (e.g., a greater percentage of female panelists), thusproducing an example imputation error. For example, an exampleimputation error may include matching media consumption behavior of amale tuning panelist in a tuning household in Philadelphia watching theprofessional football game with the media consumption behavior of afemale learning panelist in a learning household in New York Citywatching “Dancing with the Stars.” As illustrated in the above exampleimputation error, a localized event may result in unwanted exampleeffects such as, for example, inducing a local bias in the audienceconfiguration of panelists within a DMA where the localized eventoccurs. Such imputation errors may result in, for example, inaccurateratings information leading to potentially incorrect advertising pricesthat are intended to be commensurate with a predicted audience exposureand/or demographic makeup.

Examples disclosed herein account for a localized event by performing alocalized event adjustment. For example, disclosed examples perform alocalized event adjustment in a DMA by identifying a heavily exposeddata set for collected media consumption behavior. In some suchexamples, disclosed examples may analyze (e.g., iteratively analyze) oneor more media stations for a plurality of time periods (e.g., one ormore quarter-hours over a period of time). The heavily exposed data setidentifies data associated with panelists that are heavily exposed to amedia station in comparison to additional media stations. The identifiedheavily exposed data set may exhibit one or more characteristics oflocalized event media consumption behavior. In the illustrated examples,a data set is identified as a “heavily exposed” data set when (1) apercentage of the analyzed exposure minutes satisfies a first thresholdfor exposure to a specified media station (e.g., at least 20 percent ofexposure minutes during a time period are exposed to a specified mediastation), and (2) a number of households exposed to the specified mediastation satisfies a second threshold for a total number of homes exposedto a specified media station (e.g., at least 60 households during thetime period are exposed to the specified media station). Recipient datathat qualifies as “heavily exposed” is referred to herein as “heavilytuned” data. Donor data that qualifies as “heavily exposed” is referredto herein as “heavily viewed” data.

In some disclosed examples, example AM systems perform a localized eventadjustment in a DMA when a localized event is responsible for at leastone heavy tuning time period (e.g., a specified quarter-hour duringwhich “heavy tuning” occurs). In some disclosed examples, example AMsystems identify media comparable to media identified in at least oneheavy tuning time period (e.g., a specified quarter-hour during which“heavy tuning” occurs). In the illustrated examples, media that iscomparable to identified media (e.g., comparable media) refers to one ormore media stations and/or media genres that present media that isaffiliated with, associated with and/or related to (e.g., comparable to)the identified media. For example, a first example media station (e.g.,ESPN) and a second example media station (e.g., ESPN2) may be determinedto be comparable media when the first media station (e.g., ESPN) isaffiliated with and/or associated with the second media station (e.g.,ESPN2). In some examples, the first media station (e.g., ESPN) and thesecond media station (e.g., ESPN2) may present media of a related genre.For example, the first media station (e.g., ESPN) may display aprofessional football game and the second media station (e.g., ESPN2)may display a college football game. In the illustrated example, theprofessional football game may be classified in the “football” mediagenre and the college football game may be classified as a related mediagenre (e.g., sports) and/or may be classified as the same example mediagenre (e.g., football).

In some disclosed examples, example AM systems determine if a localizedevent is responsible for the one or more heavy tuning time periods. Forexample, disclosed examples may analyze media consumption behavior for aplurality of comparable media rather than just analyzing mediaconsumption behavior for one media station and/or one media genre. Forexample, if a single local media station displaying a single media genreis analyzed for panelist media consumption behavior, it may not beapparent if a localized event is influencing the audience configurationof the local media station displaying the single media genre. However,by analyzing comparable media, disclosed examples may determine whetherthe audience configuration of the local media station does not match theaudience configuration of the comparable media, where the comparablemedia may include the national media station of the local media stationand/or additional related media stations of the local media station. Inthe illustrated example above, the mismatch of audience configurationsmay be the result of a localized event influencing one or both audienceconfigurations.

Examples disclosed herein analyze (e.g., iteratively analyze) one ormore heavy tuning time periods (e.g., quarter-hours) and determinecomparable media for the media identified in the heavy tuning timeperiods. In some instances, disclosed examples determine an examplepercentage of tuning minutes associated with and/or credited to tuningpanelists in tuning households tuning to example comparable media (e.g.,a media station and/or a media genre comparable to the identified media)with respect to a total number of tuning minutes for a plurality ofmedia stations (e.g., a “comparable media tuning percentage”). In someinstances, disclosed examples analyze (e.g., iteratively analyze) thesame time periods as the heavy tuning time periods for comparable mediaconsumption behavior. In some examples, disclosed examples determine anexample percentage of viewing minutes associated with and/or credited toviewing panelists in learning households viewing the same examplecomparable media (e.g., a media station and/or a media genre comparableto the identified media) with respect to a total number of viewingminutes for the example plurality of media stations (e.g., a “comparablemedia viewing percentage”).

In some examples, disclosed techniques determine an example differentialbetween the comparable media tuning percentage and the comparable mediaviewing percentage (e.g., a “comparable media percentage differential”).For example, a localized event may be identified if the comparable mediapercentage differential satisfies a comparable media percentagedifferential threshold (e.g., the comparable media percentagedifferential is at least 5 percent, etc.). In some examples, if thecomparable media percentage differential satisfies the comparable mediapercentage differential threshold, then disclosed examples define therecipient data identified as heavily exposed as Localized EventRecipient Cutback (LERC) data.

In some examples, disclosed techniques for performing a localized eventadjustment during a viewer assignment process in a specified DMA mayalso include identifying a custom data pool associated with viewingpanelists in learning households exhibiting media consumption behaviorthat may be similar to media consumption behavior influenced by alocalized event (sometimes referred to herein as a “custom local biasdonor data pool”). In some examples, the custom data pool associatedwith viewing panelists in learning households are in the same specifiedDMA as the LERC data. In some examples, the custom data pool includesdata associated with viewing panelists in learning households inside thesame specified DMA as the LERC data and outside the same specified DMAas the LERC data.

In some examples disclosed herein, example AM systems analyze donor datato identify the custom localized event donor data pool. For example,disclosed examples may analyze (e.g., iteratively analyze) donor dataassociated with one or more media stations for a plurality ofquarter-hours. For example, AM systems may determine that analyzed donordata satisfies a first threshold (e.g., a “viewing percentagethreshold”) and satisfies a second threshold (e.g., a “learninghousehold total number threshold”). In some examples, donor datasatisfying the first threshold and the second threshold are identifiedas heavily viewed data. Disclosed examples may define the heavily vieweddata as the custom localized event donor data pool.

In some examples disclosed herein, disclosed techniques match the LERCdata to the custom localized event donor data pool. For example, thelocalized event donor data pool may resemble a pool of panelistsexhibiting media consumption behavior influenced by a localized event.Referring to the above example regarding imputation errors when matchingtuning panelists in the first example DMA (e.g., Philadelphia) watchingthe first media (e.g., the professional football game) with viewingpanelists in the second example DMA (e.g., New York City) watching thesecond media (e.g., “Dancing with the Stars”), disclosed examples mayexpand the learning household pool to include viewing panelists inlearning households from a third example DMA (e.g., Chicago). In somesuch examples, example AM systems may identify a third audienceconfiguration when viewing panelists in the third example DMA (e.g.,Chicago) are watching third example media (e.g., a professional footballgame featuring the Chicago Bears) broadcast on a third example mediastation (e.g., ABC Chicago). Disclosed examples may impute demographicsfor the first audience configuration associated with the first exampleDMA (e.g., Philadelphia) based on the third audience configurationassociated with the third example DMA (e.g., Chicago). In such anexample, the example tuning panelists within the first example DMA(e.g., Philadelphia) may be matched with the viewing panelists withinthe third example DMA (e.g., Chicago), where the audiences in the firstexample DMA and the third example DMA may be exhibiting mediaconsumption behavior indicative of a localized event influence, andthus, may be helpful in reducing imputation errors.

In some examples disclosed herein, donor data associated with the customlocalized event donor data pool that is characterized as heavily viewedand/or heavily exposed data is defined as Localized Event Donor Cutback(LEDC) data. For example, the LEDC data may include data associated withviewing panelists in learning households exhibiting localized eventmedia consumption behavior. In some examples, LEDC data associated withthe custom localized event donor data pool is matched with LERC dataassociated with tuning panelists exhibiting media consumption behaviorinfluenced by a localized event.

In some disclosed examples, the example AM system performs a localizedevent adjustment in a specified DMA by assigning probabilities to theviewing panelists and to the tuning panelists, and performing an examplematching process. In some disclosed examples, a probability engineperforms a probability assignment process using, for example,specifications for assignment of probabilities. However, in someexamples, probability assignments may be altered by performing localizedevent adjustments. In some examples, when performing a localized eventadjustment, the example probability engine assigns a first probabilityto recipient data exhibiting a local bias and matches correspondingdonor data exhibiting the local bias to the recipient data. Similarly,example AM systems may assign a second probability to recipient data notexhibiting a local bias and may match the identified recipient data withcorresponding donor data not exhibiting a local bias. In some exampleimplementations, example AM systems may assign the first probability tothe recipient data exhibiting the local bias and match the identifiedrecipient data with the corresponding donor data exhibiting the localbias, while discarding data (e.g., donor data and/or recipient data) notexhibiting a local bias.

In some examples, when an example localized event adjustment isperformed, the example probability engine determines (1) a first set ofprobabilities for the recipient data and the donor data exhibiting alocal bias and (2) a second set of probabilities for the recipient dataand the donor data not exhibiting a local bias. Upon assigning theprobabilities for the recipient data and the donor data, an examplemost-likely viewer (MLV) engine may use the determined probabilities toidentify which example tuning household(s) best match with correspondinglearning household(s). In some examples, the MLV engine may also imputeviewing behavior information of the members of the matched examplelearning household(s) to the corresponding members of the example tuninghousehold(s). For example, the MLV engine may impute viewing behaviorinformation by matching LERC data associated with tuning panelists intuning households exhibiting localized event media consumption behaviorto LEDC data associated with viewing panelists in learning households.The example MLV engine may additionally or alternatively impute viewingbehavior information by matching non-LERC data associated with tuningpanelists in tuning households exhibiting non-localized event mediaconsumption behavior to non-LEDC data associated with viewing panelistsin non-learning households.

As disclosed herein, imputation errors may be reduced through processesthat enhance a viewer assignment (VA) process in addition to making alocalized event adjustment. In some examples, example AM systems may notutilize a localized event adjustment process during the VA process. Forexample, example AM systems may not utilize a localized event adjustmentprocess during the VA process in cases where only one DMA of interest isbeing analyzed. In some such examples when only one DMA of interest isbeing analyzed, example AM systems may use (e.g., exclusively use)tuning panelists and viewing panelists in the DMA of interest without aneed to expand to additional DMAs of interest.

In some disclosed examples, example AM systems may reduce imputationerrors by adjusting VA performance among households with only twooccupants (e.g., households of size 2). Such an example adjustment mayinclude comparing a first household of size 2 with a second household ofsize 2 instead of comparing a first household of size 2 to a thirdhousehold not of size 2 (e.g., a household of size 1 or a household ofsize 3 or more). Such an example adjustment of comparing the firsthousehold of size 2 with the second household of size 2 may improve VAaccuracy (e.g., improved accuracy for assigning male gender viewers) forspecified media events (e.g., broadcast supporting events) because ahousehold size 2 home has an increased likelihood of having two personssimilar in age with similar media consumption behaviors. In someexamples, adjusting VA performance among households with only twooccupants is carried out when donor matching is performed and mayinclude separating out household size 2 homes with one or both person(s)that satisfy an age threshold (e.g., greater than or equal to 55 yearsold) from those household size 2 homes where both persons fail tosatisfy the age threshold (e.g., both household members are less than 55years old). In general, both members of household size 2 homes areapproximately the same age. Thus, when a household size 2 home has oneperson who satisfies an age threshold, the other household member isalso likely to satisfy the age threshold.

Furthermore, viewing behaviors of household size 2 homes may differbased on whether at least one household member satisfies the agethreshold. For example, household members in household size 2 homeswhere at least one household member satisfies the age threshold may bemore likely to watch media together and may more likely be viewing localnews or syndication programs. In other examples, household members inhousehold size 2 homes where neither household member satisfies the agethreshold (e.g., young couples, single-parent homes, etc.) may not watchmedia together. As a result, in some examples, disclosed examplesprocess household size 2 homes separately from non-household size 2homes when performing matching processes. For example, the example MLVengine may use (1) the assigned probabilities for the recipient data andthe donor data and (2) whether the corresponding households arehousehold size 2 homes or non-household size 2 homes when identifyingexample tuning household(s) best match with corresponding learninghousehold(s).

Disclosed examples may also reduce imputation errors and improve viewerassignment by expanding a learning household pool used by the exampleMLV engine. For example, expanding the learning household pool mayimprove the matching accuracy and/or reduce gender skew for specifiedmedia events (e.g., broadcast sporting events). For example, disclosedexamples may expand the learning household pool to encompass acollection of learning households within an example geographical areaencompassing, for example, an entire country (e.g., a complete nationalpeople meter sample). In some examples, the expanding of the learninghousehold pool may be applied to the probability calculation phase. Byexpanding the learning household pool, disclosed examples may reduceimputation errors by, for example, improving accuracy when assigningdonor data associated with viewing panelists within learning householdsto corresponding recipient data associated with tuning panelists withintuning households.

In some disclosed examples, the example AM system may reduce imputationerrors by adjusting tuning quantile dimension(s) during the matchingphase of the VA process. For example, the disclosed example AM systemmay verify that households are matched to other households with similartuning behavior and/or media consumption behavior. For example,disclosed examples may double the number of donors available formatching by classifying tuning behavior as either “heavy tuning” or “lowtuning” (e.g., using a 2-way variable) instead of classifying tuningbehavior using a 4-way variable (e.g., “heavy-heavy tuning,” “low-heavytuning,” “heavy-low tuning,” or “low-low tuning”). In some examples,adjusting the tuning quantile dimension(s) may be used when processingmedia consumption behavior related to a localized event. In someinstances, adjusting the tuning quantile dimension(s) may be used whenprocessing media consumption behavior not related to the localizedevent.

Turning to FIG. 1, an example media distribution environment 100includes a first example designated market area (DMA) 102 and a secondexample DMA 104. While the illustrated example of FIG. 1 includes twoexample DMAs 102,104, other example environments may additionally oralternatively include any number of DMAs. The first example DMA 102includes first example learning households 108 and first example tuninghouseholds 110 communicatively connected to an example network 106. Asdescribed below, in the illustrated example, the first example DMA 102has an example localized event (e.g., a localized media event)occurring, which induces an example bias (e.g., a local bias) in themedia consumption behavior of the viewing panelists in the first examplelearning households 108 and/or the tuning panelists in the first exampletuning households 110.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the second example DMA 104includes second example learning households 112 and second exampletuning households 114 communicatively connected to the network 106. Inthe illustrated example, the second example DMA 104 does not have alocalized event (e.g., a localized media event) occurring. However, insome examples, a localized event (e.g., a localized media event) mayadditionally or alternatively occur in the second example DMA 104,thereby inducing an example bias (e.g., a local bias) in the mediaconsumption behavior of the viewing panelists in the second examplelearning households 112 and/or the tuning panelists in the secondexample tuning households 114.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the first example learninghouseholds 108 and the second example learning households 112 includePeople Meter (PM) devices to (1) capture media exposure information andto (2) identify a corresponding panelist household member(s) consumingthe media. The first example tuning households 110 and the secondexample tuning households 114 of FIG. 1 include media meter (MM) devicesto capture media exposure information without identification of whichhousehold panelist member(s) is/are responsible for consuming the media.Accordingly, examples disclosed herein improve accuracy and/orreliability of predictions of which household members in the tuninghouseholds are deemed to be viewers of (e.g., are exposed to) mediaduring a time period (e.g., viewers of media during a specified day,quarter-hour, daypart, etc.). For example, errors may be reduced byimputing known viewing behavior in the learning households 108,112obtained via PM devices to unknown viewing behavior in the tuninghouseholds 110,114 obtained via MM devices.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, behavior information collectedfrom the households 108, 110, 112, 114 of the DMAs 102, 104 is sent toan example viewer assignment engine 120 for analysis via the examplenetwork 106. The example network 106 of the illustrated example of FIG.1 is the Internet. However, the example network 106 may be implementedusing any suitable wired and/or wireless network(s) including, forexample, one or more data buses, one or more Local Area Networks (LANs),one or more wireless LANs, one or more cellular networks, one or moreprivate networks, one or more public networks, etc. The example network106 enables the example viewer assignment engine 120 to be incommunication with the first example learning households 108, the firstexample tuning households 110, the second example learning households112 and the second example tuning households 114 of the DMAs 102,104. Asused herein, the phrase “in communication,” including variancestherefore, encompasses direct communication and/or indirectcommunication through one or more intermediary components and does notrequire direct physical (e.g., wired) communication and/or constantcommunication, but rather includes selective communication at periodicor aperiodic intervals, as well as one-time events.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example viewer assignmentengine 120 performs viewer assignment of panelists included in thetuning households 110,114 based on the panelists included in thelearning households 108,112. For example, the viewer assignment engine120 may identify most likely viewers of media in the tuning households110,114 based on viewers included in the learning households 108,112,respectively. In some examples, the viewer assignment engine 120 maydetermine that a localized event is occurring in a DMA (e.g., the firstexample DMA 102). In some such examples, the example viewer assignmentengine 120 identifies a DMA exhibiting a similar local bias and uses thepanelists in the identified DMA to perform viewer assignment of thepanelists in the first example DMA 102. The example viewer assignmentengine 120 of FIG. 1 includes an example collection engine 130, anexample database 136, an example localized event engine 140, an exampleprobability engine 160 and an example most likely viewer (MLV) engine170. The example collection engine 130 of FIG. 1 includes an examplelearning household interface 132 and an example tuning householdinterface 134. The example probability engine 160 of FIG. 1 includes anexample localized event probability calculator 162 and an examplenon-localized event probability calculator 164. The example MLV engine170 of FIG. 1 includes an example localized event MLV selector 172 andan example non-localized event MLV selector 174.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example viewer assignmentengine 120 includes the example collection engine 130 to query, filter,obtain and/or process panelist data (e.g., media consumption behaviordata, tuning behavior data, viewing behavior data, etc.) based on atleast one demographic (e.g., a gender, an age, an income category, etc.)and/or filtering parameter (e.g., panelists viewing a specified mediastation, viewing media during a specified time period (e.g., Monday from7-7:15 pm, etc.)) of interest. The example collection engine 130 storesthe obtained panelist data in the example database 136. In someexamples, the example collection engine 130 determines an order of thedata provided to the example viewer assignment engine 120 forprocessing. For example, the collection engine 130 may process the datain the database 136 by sorting the data in a data structure such as, forexample, an array, a list, a table, etc. based on a timestamp, a numberof exposure minutes, a number of exposure households, etc. In someexamples, the example collection engine 130 provides (e.g., sequentiallyprovides) data in the example database 136 to the example localizedevent engine 140, the example probability engine 160 and/or the exampleMLV engine 170 for processing. For example, the collection engine 130may sequentially provide data in the database 136 to the localized eventengine 140 and continue to provide the data until all of the data hasbeen provided to the localized event engine 140.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example collection engine 130may obtain example viewing panelist data (e.g. viewing behavior data,media consumption behavior data, etc.) from the first example learninghouseholds 108 and the second example learning households 112 via theexample learning household interface 132. The example learning householdinterface 132 of FIG. 1 stores the obtained viewing panelist data in theexample database 136. The example learning household interface 132interfaces with the first example learning households 108 and the secondexample learning households 112 that include PM devices to capture mediaconsumption information and identify a respective panelist householdmember(s) consuming the corresponding media. For example, the collectionengine 130 may cause the learning household interface 132 to retrieveand/or otherwise obtain corresponding viewing minutes from the examplelearning households 108,112 that match specified filtering categoriesand/or parameters (sometimes referred to herein as demographicdimensions) and store data related to the tuning minutes in the exampledatabase 136. In the illustrated examples, a demographic dimension mayrepresent a category that incorporates one or more parameters such asmales age 35-54. In some examples, the example collection engine 130causes the learning household interface 132 to query and/or filter oneor more example candidate learning households (e.g., first examplelearning households 108, second example learning households 112, etc.)for analysis, comparison and/or imputation purposes.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example collection engine 130obtains example tuning panelist data (e.g., media consumption behaviordata, tuning behavior data, etc.) from the first example tuninghouseholds 110 and the second example tuning households 114 via theexample tuning household interface 134. The example tuning householdinterface 134 of FIG. 1 stores the obtained tuning panelist data in theexample database 136. The example tuning household interface 134interfaces with the first example tuning households 110 and the secondexample tuning households 114, which include MM devices, to capturemedia consumption information that is not associated with useridentification of which household panelist member(s) is/are responsiblefor consuming the corresponding media. For example, the collectionengine 130 may cause the tuning household interface 134 to retrieveand/or obtain tuning minutes from the example tuning households 110,114that match one or more demographic dimensions and store the retrieveddata satisfying the specified demographic dimensions in the exampledatabase 136. In some examples, the example collection engine 130 causesthe example tuning household interface 134 to query and/or filter one ormore example candidate tuning households (e.g., first example tuninghouseholds 110, second example tuning households 114, etc.) foranalysis, comparison and/or imputation purposes.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example viewer assignmentengine 120 includes the example database 136 to record data (e.g.,tuning panelist data, viewing panelist data, etc.) obtained by theaudience measurement system(s) deployed in the example DMA 102,104 viathe example learning household interface 132 and/or the tuning householdinterface 134. In some examples, the example database 136 records a flagand/or a variable associated with the obtained data. For example, thedatabase 136 may record a flag associated with the obtained data thatmay be set by the viewer assignment engine 120 if the obtained datasatisfies a condition. The example database 136 may respond to queriesfor information related to data in the database 136. For example, thedatabase 136 may respond to queries for additional data by providing theadditional data, by providing an index associated with the additionaldata in the database 136, etc. The example database 136 may additionallyor alternatively respond to queries when there is no additional data inthe database 136 by providing a null index, an end of database 136identifier, etc. The example database 136 may be implemented by avolatile memory (e.g., a Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory(SDRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), RAMBUS Dynamic RandomAccess Memory (RDRAM), etc.) and/or a non-volatile memory (e.g., flashmemory). The example database 136 may additionally or alternatively beimplemented by one or more double data rate (DDR) memories, such as DDR,DDR2, DDR3, mobile DDR (mDDR), etc. The example database 136 mayadditionally or alternatively be implemented by one or more mass storagedevices such as hard disk drive(s), compact disk drive(s) digitalversatile disk drive(s), etc. While in the illustrated example thedatabase 136 is illustrated as a single database, the database 136 maybe implemented by any number and/or type(s) of databases.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example viewer assignmentengine 120 includes the example localized event engine 140 to determineif media consumption behavior of tuning panelists in tuning householdsis influenced (e.g., biased) by a localized event. As described below inconnection with FIG. 2, the example localized event engine 140 analyzesmedia consumption behavior of tuning panelists in the first exampletuning households 110 for media comparable to the media station(s)and/or media genre(s) included in the media consumption behavior (e.g.,a comparable media station, a comparable media genre, etc.) associatedwith the tuning panelists in the first example tuning households 110during heavily tuned time periods (e.g., quarter-hours). In theillustrated example, the example localized event engine 140 analyzes themedia consumption behavior of viewing panelists in the first examplelearning households 108 and tuning panelists in the first example tuninghouseholds 110 for the identified comparable media during the heavilytuned quarter-hours. In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the examplelocalized event engine 140 determines if a difference between the mediaconsumption behavior of the first example learning households 108 andthe media consumption behavior of the first example tuning households110 satisfies an example threshold (e.g., a comparable media percentagedifferential threshold, a localized event threshold, etc.). If theexample localized event engine 140 determines that the differencesatisfies the example threshold, then the localized event engine 140identifies the recipient data associated with the tuning panelists inthe first example tuning households 110 as LERC data. In the illustratedexample, the example localized event engine 140 determines that themedia consumption behavior of tuning panelists in the first exampletuning households 110 are influenced by a localized event.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example localized event engine140 identifies a custom pool of learning households exhibiting similarmedia consumption behaviors to the first example tuning households 110exhibiting the localized event media consumption behavior. In someexamples, the example localized event engine 140 identifies the donordata associated with the identified custom pool of learning householdsas LEDC data. In some examples, the custom pool of learning householdsincludes learning households that are in the same DMA as the recipientdata exhibiting the localized event media consumption behavior and/or ina different DMA from the recipient data exhibiting the localized eventmedia consumption behavior. For example, the custom pool of learninghouseholds may include none, some, or all of the first example learninghouseholds 108 in the first example DMA 102 and/or none, some, or all ofthe second example learning households 112 in the second example DMA104.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example viewer assignmentengine 120 includes the example probability engine 160 to calculateprobabilities for imputing tuning panelists in the first example tuninghouseholds 110 and/or the second example tuning households 114. In someexamples, the example probability engine 160 calculates a totalprobability for a panelist in an example panelist household (e.g., atuning household, a learning household, etc.). For example, theprobability engine 160 may use example Equation (1) below to calculatethe total probability for a panelist.

$\begin{matrix}{{{{Tot}.{Probability}}\mspace{14mu}(j)} = \frac{\Sigma\mspace{14mu}{Exposure}\mspace{14mu}{Minutes}\mspace{14mu}{for}\mspace{14mu} j}{\Sigma\mspace{14mu}{Potential}\mspace{14mu}{Exposure}\mspace{14mu}{Minutes}\mspace{14mu}{for}\mspace{14mu} j}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu}(1)}\end{matrix}$

In the illustrated example of Equation (1), the variable “j” representsa selected panelist demographic dimension of interest, such as, forexample, males age 35-54. In example Equation (1) above, the totalprobability for a selected demographic dimension “j” is calculated as aratio of (1) a sum of the example exposure minutes (e.g., tuningminutes, viewing minutes, etc.) for the selected demographic dimension“j” and (2) a sum of the example exposure minutes for the selecteddemographic dimension “j.”

For example, assume that a plurality of households containing thefollowing demographic dimensions are chosen for processing: three (3)household members including one child and two (2) adults, where one (1)adult is a male age 35-54. In this example, assume that males age 35-54are associated with a total of 1850 exposure minutes. Also in thisexample, assume that other household members of interest under analysis(e.g., females age 35-54 and children age 2-11) account for a total of2500 exposure minutes within those respective households. In theillustrated example, minutes associated with other household members aredeemed “potential exposure minutes” because of the possibility that theother household members may have also been viewing media at the sametime as the members of the male age 35-54 demographic. Applying theexample scenario above to example Equation (1) above, the exampleprobability engine 160 calculates a total probability for males age35-54 as 0.74 (e.g., 1850/2500=0.74).

In some examples, the example probability engine 160 calculates a totalprobability for a plurality of demographic dimensions. However, apanelist may fit two or more demographic dimensions and thereforeexposure minutes of a panelist may be credited to the two or moredemographic dimensions. The output of the example probability engine 160crediting exposure minutes of the panelist to the two or moredemographic dimensions may produce overlapping media consumptionbehavior information used by the example viewer assignment engine 120.For example, the probability engine 160 may perform a total probabilitycalculation which credits a number of viewing minutes that the viewingpanelist views media to each demographic dimension that fits the viewingpanelist such as, for example, (1) being male, (2) between the age range35-54 and (3) residing in Chicago. If the example viewer assignmentengine 120 analyzes the total probability value calculated by theexample probability engine 160 for each demographic dimension (e.g.,gender, age and location) separately, then the viewer assignment engine120 may identify each total probability value associated with theviewing panelist as separate media consumption behavior and/or as aseparate panelist instead of one panelist fitting multiple demographicdimensions having one media consumption behavior.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example probability engine 160processes a plurality of calculated total probability values for apanelist to reduce overlapping media consumption behavior information.In some examples, the example probability engine 160 calculates a finalprobability for each calculated total probability. In the illustratedexample, the final probability is calculated by scaling the totalprobability using one or more scaling factors to reduce overlappingmedia consumption behavior information. For example, the probabilityengine 160 may use example Equation (2) below to calculate the finalprobability for each calculated total probability.

$\begin{matrix}{{{Final}{\mspace{11mu}\;}{Probability}} = \frac{{Adjusted}\mspace{14mu}{Probability}\mspace{14mu}\left( {j,d} \right)}{\left\lbrack {1 + {{Adjusted}\mspace{14mu}{Probability}\mspace{14mu}\left( {j,d} \right)}} \right.}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu}(2)}\end{matrix}$

In the illustrated example of Equation (2), the variable “j” representsa selected panelist demographic dimension of interest, such as, forexample, males age 35-54. The variable “d” represents an additionalpanelist demographic dimension of interest, such as, for example,panelists viewing media in Chicago. In example Equation (2) above, theadjusted probability represents a scaled version of the totalprobability calculated by the example Equation (1) above. In someexamples, the example probability engine 160 may use example Equation(2) above to analyze media consumption behavior of a panelist from theperspective of one or more demographic dimension(s) to reduce the effectof redundant media consumption behavior analysis.

In some examples, the example probability engine 160 calculates anaverage probability value by calculating an average final probabilityacross all quarter hours within the demographic dimension(s) of interest(e.g. an “average probability”). For example, the probability engine 160may use Equation (3) below to calculate the average probability.

$\begin{matrix}{{{{Avg}.{Probability}}\mspace{14mu}(j)} = \frac{\Sigma\mspace{14mu}{Final}\mspace{14mu}{Probabilities}\mspace{14mu}{for}\mspace{14mu} j}{\Sigma\mspace{14mu}{Number}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{Final}\mspace{14mu}{Probabilities}\mspace{14mu}{for}\mspace{14mu} j}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu}(3)}\end{matrix}$

In the illustrated example of Equation (3), the variable “j” representsa selected panelist demographic dimension of interest, such as, forexample, males age 35-54. By using Equation (3) above, the exampleprobability engine 160 calculates an average probability for a selectedpanelist demographic dimension “j” as a ratio of (1) a sum of finalprobabilities for the selected panelist demographic dimension “j” for atleast one quarter-hour and (2) a sum of a number of final probabilitiescalculated for the selected panelist demographic dimension “j.”

The example probability engine 160 of FIG. 1 includes the examplelocalized event probability calculator 162 and the example non-localizedevent probability calculator 164. The example localized eventprobability calculator 162 selects (1) recipient data exhibitinglocalized event media consumption behavior (e.g., LERC data) and (2)donor data exhibiting localized event media consumption behavior (e.g.,LEDC data). The example localized event probability calculator 162 ofFIG. 1 calculates probabilities for and/or assigns probabilities to LERCdata associated with tuning panelists in the first example tuninghouseholds 110. The example localized event probability calculator 162of FIG. 1 also calculates probabilities for and/or assigns probabilitiesto LEDC data associated with viewing panelists in the first examplelearning households 108. In some examples, the example localized eventprobability calculator 162 may calculate probabilities for and/or assignprobabilities to data associated with tuning panelists in the secondexample tuning households 114 and/or viewing panelists in the secondexample learning households 112. For example, if there are fewer viewingpanelists in the first learning households 108 available to match withthe tuning panelists in the first tuning households 110, then thelocalized event engine 140 may identify a number of viewing panelists inthe learning households 110 to match with the unmatched tuningpanelists. The example localized event probability calculator 162 maythen calculate probabilities for and/or assign probabilities to dataassociated with the viewing panelists in the second example learninghouseholds 112. In some examples, the example localized eventprobability calculator 162 calculates probabilities using exampleEquations (1)-(3) above.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example non-localized eventprobability calculator 164 selects recipient data not exhibitinglocalized event media consumption behavior (e.g., non-LERC data) and/ordonor data not exhibiting localized event media consumption behavior(e.g., non-LEDC data). The example non-localized event probabilitycalculator 164 of FIG. 1 calculates probabilities for and/or assignsprobabilities to non-LERC data associated with tuning panelists in thesecond example tuning households 114. The example non-localized eventprobability calculator 164 of FIG. 1 also calculates probabilities forand/or assigns probabilities to non-LEDC data associated with viewingpanelists in the second example learning households 112. However, insome examples, the example non-localized event probability calculator164 may calculate probabilities for and/or assign probabilities to dataassociated with tuning panelists in the first example tuning households110 and/or viewing panelists in the first example learning households108 during non-heavily tuned and/or non-heavily exposed time periods(e.g., quarter-hours in which a localized event is not biasing mediaconsumption behavior). In some examples, the example non-localized eventprobability calculator 164 calculates probabilities using exampleEquations (1)-(3) above.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example viewer assignmentengine 120 includes the example MLV engine 170 to determine imputationsand/or matches for tuning panelists in the first example tuninghouseholds 110 and the second example tuning households 114 based onprobabilities assigned to and/or calculated by the example probabilityengine 160. In some examples, the example MLV engine 170 uses theprobability values calculated by the example probability engine 160 toidentify matches of each media presentation device within the firstexample tuning households 110 and the second example tuning households114 so that the viewing behaviors of each media presentation device fromthe members of the first example learning households 108 and the secondexample learning households 112 may be imputed to the correspondingmembers of the matching example tuning households.

In some examples, the example MLV engine 170 matches a first tuningpanelist in the first example tuning household 110 with a first examplelearning panelist in an example learning household of the first examplelearning households 108 or the second example learning households 112.For example, the MLV engine 170 of FIG. 1 may calculate a differencebetween the average probability values for the first tuning panelist andthe first learning panelist. In some examples, the example MLV engine170 calculates differences for additional panelists in the households ofthe first tuning panelist and the first learning panelist. For example,the MLV engine 170 may calculate the difference between the averageprobabilities of the second tuning panelist and the second learningpanelist (1) if there is a second tuning panelist in the same tuninghousehold as the first tuning panelist, and (2) if there is a secondlearning panelist in the same learning household as the first learningpanelist.

In some examples, the example MLV engine 170 of FIG. 1 calculates an MLVscore by summing the difference values of the average probabilitieswithin the household. For example, the MLV engine 170 may calculate anMLV score by summing (1) the difference between the average probabilityvalues for the first tuning panelist and the first learning panelist and(2) the difference between the average probability values for the secondtuning panelist and the second learning panelist. In the illustratedexample, an MLV score value that is relatively lower compared to anotherMLV score value indicates a greater degree of similarity between thecompared persons of a tuning household and a learning household. In someexamples, the example MLV engine 170 identifies tuning households andlearning households that have similar MLV scores to determine if theycan be matched with each other. For example, the MLV engine 170 mayidentify a tuning household with an MLV score of 0.12 and a learninghousehold with an MLV score of 0.10. The example MLV engine 170 maycalculate an absolute difference between the two scores to be 0.02(e.g., 0.12-0.10=0.02). The example MLV engine 170 may also verify thatthere are no additional learning households that can be paired with thetuning household having the MLV score of 0.12 that would produce anabsolute difference less than 0.02.

In some examples, the example MLV engine 170 may identify a matchbetween a tuning panelist and a learning panelist if a calculatedaverage probability associated with the tuning panelist and the learningpanelist satisfies a threshold (e.g., a panelist having an averageprobability greater than 0.70, etc.). For example, the MLV engine 170may identify a tuning panelist in a first example tuning household 110with a calculated average probability of 0.71. The example MLV engine170 may also identify a learning panelist in a first example learninghousehold 108 with a calculated average probability of 0.75. The exampleMLV engine 170 may match the tuning panelist with the learning panelistbecause the calculated average probabilities associated with the tuningpanelist and the learning panelist is greater than the threshold of 0.7used by the MLV engine 170 for matching panelists.

In some examples, the example MLV engine 170 determines imputationsand/or matches for tuning panelists in the first example tuninghouseholds 110 and the second example tuning households 114 basedhousehold sizes. For example, the MLV engine 170 may separate householdsize 2 homes from non-household size 2 homes when determiningimputations and/or matches. The example MLV engine 170 may includehousehold sizes when performing matches for localized event data and fornon-localized event data.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example MLV engine 170includes the example localized event MLV selector 172 to match LERC dataassociated with tuning panelists in the first example tuning households110 exhibiting localized event media consumption behavior to LEDC dataassociated with viewing panelists in the first example learninghouseholds 108 and/or viewing panelists in the second example learninghouseholds 112. For example, the localized event MLV selector 172 maymatch a tuning panelist in a tuning household 110 exhibiting a firstlocalized event media consumption behavior and a viewing panelist in alearning household 108 exhibiting a second localized event mediaconsumption behavior because the tuning household 110 and the learninghousehold 108 have a similar MLV score. In another example, thelocalized event MLV selector 172 may match the tuning panelist in thetuning household 110 exhibiting the first localized event mediaconsumption behavior with the viewing panelist in the learning household108 exhibiting the second localized event media consumption behaviorbecause the calculated average probabilities associated with the tuningpanelist and the viewing panelist satisfies a threshold (e.g., thecalculated average probability associated with the panelist is greaterthan 0.7, etc.).

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the example MLV engine 170 of FIG.1 includes the example non-localized event MLV selector 174 to matchnon-LERC data associated with tuning panelists in the second exampletuning households 114 exhibiting non-localized event media consumptionbehavior to non-LEDC data associated with viewing panelists in the firstexample learning households 108 and/or viewing panelists in the secondexample learning households 112. For example, the non-localized eventMLV selector 174 may match a tuning panelist in a tuning household 114exhibiting a first localized event media consumption behavior and aviewing panelist in a learning household 112 exhibiting a secondlocalized event media consumption behavior because the tuning household114 and the learning household 112 have a similar MLV score. In anotherexample, the non-localized event MLV selector 174 may match the tuningpanelist in the tuning household 114 exhibiting the first localizedevent media consumption behavior with the viewing panelist in thelearning household 112 exhibiting the second localized event mediaconsumption behavior because the calculated average probabilitiesassociated with the tuning panelist and the viewing panelist satisfies athreshold (e.g., the calculated average probability associated with thepanelist is greater than 0.7, etc.).

While an example manner of implementing the example viewer assignmentengine 120 is illustrated in FIG. 1, one or more of the elements,processes and/or devices illustrated in FIG. 1 may be combined, divided,re-arranged, omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any other way.Further, the example collection engine 130, the example learninghousehold interface 132, the example tuning household interface 134, theexample database 136, the example localized event engine 140, theexample probability engine 160, the example localized event probabilitycalculator 162, the example non-localized event probability calculator164, the example most likely viewer engine 170, the example localizedevent MLV selector 172, the example non-localized event MLV selector 174and/or, more generally, the example viewer assignment engine 120 of FIG.1 may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware and/or anycombination of hardware, software and/or firmware. Thus, for example,any of the example collection engine 130, the example learning householdinterface 132, the example tuning household interface 134, the exampledatabase 136, the example localized event engine 140, the exampleprobability engine 160, the example localized event probabilitycalculator 162, the example non-localized event probability calculator164, the example most likely viewer engine 170, the example localizedevent MLV selector 172, the example non-localized event MLV selector 174and/or, more generally, the example viewer assignment engine 120 of FIG.1 may be implemented by one or more analog or digital circuit(s), logiccircuits, programmable processor(s), application specific integratedcircuit(s) (ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or fieldprogrammable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)). When reading any of theapparatus or system claims of this patent to cover a purely softwareand/or firmware implementation, at least one of the example collectionengine 130, the example learning household interface 132, the exampletuning household interface 134, the example database 136, the examplelocalized event engine 140, the example probability engine 160, theexample localized event probability calculator 162, the examplenon-localized event probability calculator 164, the example most likelyviewer engine 170, the example localized event MLV selector 172, theexample non-localized event MLV selector 174 and/or, more generally, theexample viewer assignment engine 120 of FIG. 1 is hereby expresslydefined to include a tangible computer readable storage device orstorage disk such as a memory, a digital versatile disk (DVD), a compactdisk (CD), a Blu-ray disk, etc. storing the software and/or firmware.Further still, the example viewer assignment engine 120 of FIG. 1 mayinclude one or more elements, processes and/or devices in addition to,or instead of, those illustrated in FIG. 1, and/or may include more thanone of any or all of the illustrated elements, processes and devices.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example implementation of the localizedevent engine 140 of FIG. 1. The example localized event engine 140determines if collected panelist data exhibits localized event mediaconsumption behavior (e.g., media consumption behavior biased and/orinfluenced by a localized media event). The example localized eventengine 140 of FIG. 2 includes an example exposure minutes calculator200, an example exposure percentage calculator 202, an example exposurehousehold total calculator 204, an example heavy exposure classifier206, an example comparable media identifier 208, an example comparablemedia percentage calculator 210, an example localized event recipientdata identifier 212 and an example localized event donor data identifier214.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the example localized event engine140 includes the example exposure minutes calculator 200 to calculate anumber of example exposure minutes (e.g., tuning minutes, viewingminutes, etc.) that a media station has been (or a plurality of mediastations have been) accessed by panelists (e.g., tuning panelists,viewing panelists, etc.) in the example households 108,110,112,114during an example time period (e.g., a quarter-hour, a day, a month,etc.). In some examples, the example exposure minutes calculator 200filters the data obtained by the example collection engine 130 stored inthe example database 136 based on characteristics such as time, mediaidentifiers, station identifiers, etc. For example, the data collectedby the learning household interface 132 and/or the tuning householdinterface 134 may be similar in that it includes a timestamp, a mediaidentifier, a station identifier, etc. The data collected by the examplelearning household interface 132 may also include a panelist identifiercorresponding to the panelist(s) who indicated they were exposed to themedia via the PM device.

In the illustrated example, the example exposure minutes calculator 200of FIG. 2 parses the filtered data and identifies data of interest(e.g., based on timestamps, media identifiers, station identifiers,etc.) to process. For example, the exposure minutes calculator 200 mayfilter tuning panelist data in the example database 136 for a specifiedtime period (e.g., Monday 7:00-7:15 pm) based on an example stationidentifier (e.g., a station identifier “ESPN”). In the illustratedexample, the example exposure minutes calculator 200 calculates a numberof tuning minutes that the media station corresponding to the examplestation identifier (e.g., the station identifier “ESPN”) was tuned to bytuning panelists in the first example tuning households 110 and/or thesecond example tuning households 114 during the specified time period(e.g., Monday 7:00-7:15 pm). In some examples, the example exposureminutes calculator 200 calculates a number of viewing minutes that themedia station corresponding to the example station identifier (e.g., thestation identifier “ESPN”) was viewed by viewing panelists in theexample learning households (e.g., first example learning households 108and/or second example learning households 112) during the specified timeperiod (e.g., Monday 7:00-7:15 pm). In some examples, the exampleexposure minutes calculator 200 calculates a total number of exampleexposure minutes (e.g., tuning minutes, viewing minutes, etc.) thatmedia stations have been presented to panelists (e.g., tuning panelists,viewing panelists, etc.) in the example households 108,110,112,114during an example time period (e.g., a quarter-hour, a day, a month,etc.).

In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the example localized event engine140 includes the example exposure percentage calculator 202 to calculatepercentages corresponding to numbers of exposure minutes for mediastations provided by the example exposure minutes calculator 200 withrespect to a total number of exposure minutes for media stationsprovided by the exposure minutes calculator 200. For example, theexposure percentage calculator 202 may calculate a percentage of anumber of tuning minutes for a media station with respect to the totalnumber of tuning minutes for two or more media stations. In someexamples, the two or more media stations may include the total number ofmedia stations presented in a specified DMA. In some examples, theexposure percentage calculator 202 may calculate percentagescorresponding to a number of viewing minutes for a media station withrespect to the total number of viewing minutes for two or more mediastations.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the example localized event engine140 includes the example exposure household total calculator 204 todetermine a total number of example exposure households (e.g., tuninghouseholds, learning households, etc.) accessing media on mediapresentation devices. In some examples, the example exposure householdtotal calculator 204 determines the total number of example exposurehouseholds (e.g., tuning households, learning households, etc.)associated with the outputs of the example exposure minutes calculator200 and/or the example exposure percentage calculator 202. For example,the exposure household total calculator 204 may determine a total numberof example tuning households (e.g., first example tuning households 110,second example tuning households 114, etc.) associated with the numberof tuning minutes calculated by the example exposure minutes calculator200 tuning to a specified media station and/or a specified media genre.In some examples, the example exposure household total calculator 204may determine a total number of example learning households associatedwith the number of viewing minutes calculated by the example exposureminutes calculator 200 viewing the specified media station and/or thespecified media genre. Example exposure households may include, forexample, qualified tuning households, qualified learning households,non-qualified tuning households, non-qualified learning households, etc.In some examples, the example exposure household total calculator 204determines a tuning household subtotal, a learning household subtotal, atuning household total, a learning household total, etc. based onincluding additional demographic dimensions and/or filtering parameterson the tuning household total and/or learning household total.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the example localized event engine140 includes the example heavy exposure classifier 206 to determine ifpanelist data (e.g., exposure data, tuning data, viewing data, etc.)collected by the example collection engine 130 classifies as “heavilyexposed.” The example heavy exposure classifier 206 processes data(e.g., iteratively processes data) for one or more media stations duringa plurality of time periods (e.g., a plurality of quarter-hours for aplurality of dates). In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the exampleheavy exposure classifier 206 classifies panelist data as “heavilyexposed” when the panelist data satisfies two thresholds that may beindicative of exhibiting a localized event media consumption behavior.In some examples, the example heavy exposure classifier 206 uses atleast one output from the example exposure percentage calculator 202(e.g., the exposure percentage, the tuning percentage, the viewingpercentage, etc.) and/or the example exposure household total calculator204 (e.g., the exposure household total count, the tuning householdtotal count, the learning household total count, etc.) to classifycorresponding panelist data as heavily exposed data. In some examples,the example heavy exposure classifier 206 classifies collected viewingdata as “heavily viewed” data and collected tuning data as “heavilytuned” data. As used herein, the terms “heavily viewed,” and “heavilytuned” may be generally referred to as heavily exposed data. In theillustrated example of FIG. 2, when determining whether tuning data isheavily tuned data, the example heavy exposure classifier 206 determinesif a tuning percentage associated with collected tuning data satisfies a“tuning percentage threshold.” To determine if viewing data is heavilyviewed data, the example heavy exposure classifier 206 of FIG. 2determines if a viewing percentage associated with collected viewingdata satisfies a “viewing percentage threshold.” As used herein, theterms “tuning percentage threshold” and “viewing percentage threshold”may generally be referred to as exposure percentage thresholds.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the example heavy exposureclassifier 206 also determines if a number of households associated withthe collected panelist data (e.g., exposure data, tuning data, viewingdata, etc.) satisfies a household total count threshold. For example,the heavy exposure classifier 206 may determine if a number of tuninghouseholds associated with tuning data satisfies a “tuning householdtotal count threshold” and/or if a number of learning householdsassociated with viewing data satisfies a “learning household total countthreshold.” As used herein, the terms “tuning household total countthreshold” and “learning household total count threshold” may generallybe referred to as exposure household total count thresholds.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the example heavy exposureclassifier 206 classifies panelist data collected by the examplecollection engine 130 as heavily exposed by determining if the exampleexposure percentage threshold and the example exposure household totalcount threshold have been satisfied by the exposure percentage and theexposure household total count associated with the exposure data. Forexample, the heavy exposure classifier 206 may classify selectedpanelist data by the example collection engine 130 as heavily tuned dataif (1) the tuning percentage associated with the panelist data satisfiesthe tuning percentage threshold and (2) the tuning household total countassociated with the panelist data satisfies the tuning household totalcount threshold. Similarly, the example heavy exposure classifier 206may classify selected panelist data by the example collection engine 130as heavily viewed data if (1) the viewing percentage associated with thepanelist data satisfies the viewing percentage threshold and (2) thelearning household total count associated with the panelist datasatisfies the learning household total count threshold.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the example localized event engine140 includes the example comparable media identifier 208 to analyze aheavily exposed time period (e.g., a quarter-hour associated with heavyexposure data) and identify media comparable to the media identified inthe heavily exposed time period. For example, the comparable mediaidentifier 208 may analyze media and/or a media station(s) associatedwith a heavily exposed time period (e.g., a quarter-hour classified bythe example heavy exposure classifier 206 as heavily exposed) toidentify a media identifier and/or station identifier associated withthe heavily exposed media and/or a media station(s). In some examples,the example comparable media identifier 208 may compare the identifiedmedia identifier(s) and/or the station identifier(s) with mediaidentifiers and/or station identifiers stored in the example database136 to determine a potential match. The example comparable mediaidentifier 208 may identify the potential matches in the exampledatabase 136 for the media identifier(s) and/or station identifier(s) inthe heavily weighted quarter-hour(s) as comparable media. The examplecomparable media identifier 208 may store the associations and/ormatches in the example database 136 for future querying by the examplecollection engine 130.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the localized event engine 140includes the example comparable media percentage calculator 210 tocalculate percentages corresponding to a number of exposure minutescredited to comparable media with respect to a total number of exposureminutes for media stations. In some examples, the example comparablemedia percentage calculator 210 calculates percentages corresponding tocomparable media identified by the example comparable media identifier208. The example comparable media percentage calculator may then use theexample exposure minutes calculator 200 to calculate a number ofexposure minutes credited to the identified comparable media. Forexample, the comparable media percentage calculator 210 may calculate apercentage of a number of tuning minutes credited to the comparablemedia during an example time period (e.g., a quarter-hour, a day, amonth, etc.) with respect to a total number of tuning minutes for aplurality of media stations (e.g., a “comparable media tuningpercentage”). In some examples, the number of tuning minutes is creditedto tuning panelists in the first example tuning households 110 and/orthe second example tuning households 114. In some examples, the examplecomparable media percentage calculator 210 may calculate percentagescorresponding to a number of viewing minutes credited to the comparablemedia during the example time period (e.g., the quarter-hour, the day,the month, etc.) with respect to a total number of viewing minutes forthe plurality of media stations (e.g., a “comparable media viewingpercentage”). In some examples, the example comparable media percentagecalculator 210 credits the number of viewing minutes to viewingpanelists in the first example learning households 108 and/or the secondexample learning households 112.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the example localized event engine140 includes the example localized event recipient data identifier 212to determine if recipient data is influenced by an occurrence of alocalized event. In the illustrated example, the localized eventrecipient data identifier 212 of FIG. 2, calculates a differentialbetween (1) the comparable media tuning percentage calculated by theexample comparable media percentage calculator 210, and (2) the examplecomparable media viewing percentage calculated by the example comparablemedia percentage calculator 210 (e.g., a “comparable media percentagedifferential”). To determine if the recipient data is influenced by alocal event, the example localized event recipient data identifier 212determines if the comparable media percentage differential satisfies anexample comparable media percentage differential threshold (e.g., thecomparable media percentage differential greater than or equal to 5percent, etc.). In the illustrated example, in response to determiningthat the example comparable media percentage differential threshold issatisfied, the example localized event recipient data identifier 212 ofFIG. 2 identifies the example recipient data as localized eventrecipient data, or LERC data. In some examples, the LERC data is a setof data exhibiting media consumption behavior influenced by an examplebias (e.g., a local bias) due to an occurrence of a localized event.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, the example localized event engine140 includes the example localized event donor data identifier 214 toidentify donor data selected by the example collection engine 130 asexhibiting comparable media consumption behavior to the mediaconsumption behavior associated with the LERC data. For example, thelocalized event donor data identifier 214 may identify donor dataexhibiting a localized event media consumption behavior. In theillustrated example, the localized event donor data identifier 214 ofFIG. 2 determines if the donor data satisfies (1) the viewing percentagethreshold and (2) the learning household total count threshold todetermine if the donor data is exhibiting localized event mediaconsumption behavior. For example, the localized event donor dataidentifier 214 may determine if the viewing percentage associated withthe donor data as calculated by the example exposure percentagecalculator 202 satisfies the viewing percentage threshold. In someexamples, the example localized event donor data identifier 214determines if the learning household total count associated with thedonor data as calculated by the example exposure household totalcalculator 204 satisfies the learning household total count threshold.In the illustrated example, if the example localized event donor dataidentifier 214 determines that the selected donor data satisfies (1) theviewing percentage threshold and (2) the learning household total countthreshold, then the localized event donor data identifier 214 classifiesthe selected donor data as heavily viewed, or LEDC data.

While an example manner of implementing the example localized eventengine 140 of FIG. 1 is illustrated in FIG. 2, one or more of theelements, processes and/or devices illustrated in FIG. 2 may becombined, divided, re-arranged, omitted, eliminated and/or implementedin any other way. Further, the example exposure minutes calculator 200,the example exposure percentage calculator 202, the example exposurehousehold total calculator 204, the example heavy exposure classifier206, the example comparable media identifier 208, the example comparablemedia percentage calculator 210, the example localized event recipientdata identifier 212, the example localized event donor data identifier214 and/or, more generally, the example localized event engine 140 ofFIG. 2 may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware and/or anycombination of hardware, software and/or firmware. Thus, for example,any of the example exposure minutes calculator 200, the example exposurepercentage calculator 202, the example exposure household totalcalculator 204, the example heavy exposure classifier 206, the examplecomparable media identifier 208, the example comparable media percentagecalculator 210, the example localized event recipient data identifier212, the example localized event donor data identifier 214 and/or, moregenerally, the example localized event engine 140 of FIG. 2 may beimplemented by one or more analog or digital circuit(s), logic circuits,programmable processor(s), application specific integrated circuit(s)(ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or fieldprogrammable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)). When reading any of theapparatus or system claims of this patent to cover a purely softwareand/or firmware implementation, at least one of the example exposureminutes calculator 200, the example exposure percentage calculator 202,the example exposure household total calculator 204, the example heavyexposure classifier 206, the example comparable media identifier 208,the example comparable media percentage calculator 210, the examplelocalized event recipient data identifier 212, the example localizedevent donor data identifier 214 and/or, more generally, the examplelocalized event engine 140 of FIG. 2 is hereby expressly defined toinclude a tangible computer readable storage device or storage disk suchas a memory, a digital versatile disk (DVD), a compact disk (CD), aBlu-ray disk, etc. storing the software and/or firmware. Further still,the example localized event engine 140 of FIG. 2 may include one or moreelements, processes and/or devices in addition to, or instead of, thoseillustrated in FIG. 2, and/or may include more than one of any or all ofthe illustrated elements, processes and devices.

Flowcharts representative of example machine-readable instructions forimplementing the example viewer assignment engine 120 of FIG. 1 and/orthe example localized event engine 140 are shown in FIGS. 3-10 and/or11. In these examples, the machine-readable instructions comprise aprogram for execution by a processor such as the processor 1204 shown inthe example processor platform 1202 discussed below in connection withFIG. 12. The program(s) may be embodied in software stored on a tangiblecomputer readable storage medium such as a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a harddrive, a digital versatile disk (DVD), a Blu-ray disk, or a memoryassociated with the processor 1204, but the entire program(s) and/orparts thereof may alternatively be executed by a device other than theprocessor 1204 and/or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware.Further, although the example program(s) is/are described with referenceto the flowcharts illustrated in FIGS. 3-11, many other methods ofimplementing the example viewer assignment engine 120 and/or the examplelocalized event engine 140 may alternatively be used. For example, theorder of execution of the blocks may be changed, and/or some of theblocks described may be changed, eliminated, or combined.

As mentioned above, the example processes of FIGS. 3-10 and/or 11 may beimplemented using coded instructions (e.g., computer and/ormachine-readable instructions) stored on a tangible computer readablestorage medium such as a hard disk drive, a flash memory, a read-onlymemory (ROM), a compact disk (CD), a digital versatile disk (DVD), acache, a random-access memory (RAM) and/or any other storage device orstorage disk in which information is stored for any duration (e.g., forextended time periods, permanently, for brief instances, for temporarilybuffering, and/or for caching of the information). As used herein, theterm tangible computer readable storage medium is expressly defined toinclude any type of computer readable storage device and/or storage diskand to exclude propagating signals and to exclude transmission media. Asused herein, “tangible computer readable storage medium” and “tangiblemachine-readable storage medium” are used interchangeably. Additionallyor alternatively, the example processes of FIGS. 3-10 and/or 11 may beimplemented using coded instructions (e.g., computer and/ormachine-readable instructions) stored on a non-transitory computerand/or machine-readable medium such as a hard disk drive, a flashmemory, a read-only memory, a compact disk, a digital versatile disk, acache, a random-access memory and/or any other storage device or storagedisk in which information is stored for any duration (e.g., for extendedtime periods, permanently, for brief instances, for temporarilybuffering, and/or for caching of the information). As used herein, theterm non-transitory computer readable medium is expressly defined toinclude any type of computer readable storage device and/or storage diskand to exclude propagating signals and to exclude transmission media. Asused herein, when the phrase “at least” is used as the transition termin a preamble of a claim, it is open-ended in the same manner as theterm “comprising” is open ended. Comprising and all other variants of“comprise” are expressly defined to be open-ended terms. Including andall other variants of “include” are also defined to be open-ended terms.In contrast, the term consisting and/or other forms of consist aredefined to be close-ended terms.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions 300 that may be executed by the example viewer assignmentengine 120 of FIG. 1 to identify tuning panelists in one or more exampletuning households (e.g., the first example tuning households 110) thatare the most likely viewers for presented media. The example program 300begins at block 302 when the example collection engine 130 (FIG. 1)collects panelist data for the example DMAs 102, 104. For example, thelearning household interface 132 (FIG. 1) may obtain PM device data(e.g., viewing minutes) from the first example learning households 108and/or the second example learning households 112. The example tuninghousehold interface 134 (FIG. 1) may obtain MM device data (e.g., tuningminutes) from the first example viewing households 110 and/or the secondexample viewing households 114.

At block 304, the example localized event engine 140 (FIGS. 1 and/or 2)calculates a percentage tuning to a media station. For example, theexposure percentage calculator 202 (FIG. 2) may determine a percentageof a number of tuning households tuned to a particular media stationwith respect to the total number of tuning households. At block 305, theexample localized event engine 140 determines a number of householdstuning to the media station. For example, the exposure household totalcalculator (FIG. 2) may determine the number of households tuning to themedia station. At block 306, the example localized event engine 140identifies sets of heavily tuned recipient data. For example, the heavyexposure classifier 206 may identify a data set as a heavily tunedrecipient data set when (1) the percentage tuning to the media stationsatisfies the tuning percentage threshold and (2) the number ofhouseholds tuning to the media station satisfies the tuning householdtotal count threshold.

At block 308, the example localized event engine 140 calculates (1) apercentage tuning to comparable media within recipient data and (2) apercentage viewing comparable media within donor data. For example, thecomparable media percentage calculator 210 (FIG. 2) may calculate thecomparable media tuning percentage and the comparable media viewingpercentage associated with the data collected from the households108,110,112,114. At block 310, the example localized event engine 140determines whether the obtained recipient data exhibits localized eventmedia consumption behavior. For example, the localized event recipientdata identifier 212 (FIG. 2) may compare the comparable media tuningpercentage to the comparable media viewing percentage. If, at block 310,the example localized event engine 140 determines that the recipientdata does not exhibit localized event media consumption behavior (e.g.,the comparable media percentage differential is less than 5 percent,etc.), control proceeds to block 314 to calculate one or moreprobability values that the panelists associated with PM device data andthe panelists associated with MM device data are likely viewers of thepresented media. If at block 310, the example localized event engine 140determines that the obtained recipient data exhibits localized eventmedia consumption behavior (e.g., the comparable media percentagedifferential is at least 5 percent, etc.), then, at block 312, thelocalized event engine 140 identifies the obtained recipient data aslocalized event recipient data. For example, the localized eventrecipient data identifier 212 may identify the obtained recipient dataas either non-localized event recipient data or localized eventrecipient data.

At block 314, the example probability engine 160 (FIG. 1) calculates oneor more probability values that the viewing panelists and the tuningpanelists are likely viewers of the presented media. For example, thelocalized event probability calculator 162 (FIG. 1) may calculatelocalized event probabilities for LERC data and LEDC data identified aslocalized event data by the localized event recipient data identifier212 (FIG. 2) and/or the localized event donor data identifier 214 (FIG.2). The example non-localized event probability calculator 164 (FIG. 1)may calculate non-localized event probabilities for non-LERC data andnon-LEDC data identified as non-localized event data by the examplelocalized event recipient data identifier 212 and/or the examplelocalized event donor data identifier 214.

At block 316, the example MLV engine 170 (FIG. 1) identifies a mostlikely viewer for each tuning panelist in the example tuning households110 of FIG. 1. For example, the MLV engine 170 may match the mediaconsumption behavior of each tuning panelist in the tuning householdwith a corresponding viewing panelist in a learning household. Forexample, the localized event MLV selector 172 (FIG. 1) may select theviewer panelist in the learning household exhibiting localized eventmedia consumption behavior to match the tuning panelist in the tuninghousehold exhibiting localized event media consumption behavior. Theexample non-localized event MLV selector 174 (FIG. 1) may select theviewer panelist in the learning household not exhibiting localized eventmedia consumption behavior to match the tuning panelist in the tuninghousehold not exhibiting localized event media consumption behavior. Theexample program 300 of FIG. 3 then ends.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions 400 that may be executed by the example viewer assignmentengine 120 of FIG. 1 to calculate the exposure percentage and tocalculate the number of exposure households presenting a media station.The example program 400 of FIG. 4 begins at block 402 when the examplecollection engine 130 (FIG. 1) selects exposure data of interest toprocess. In some examples, the example collection engine 130 may selectthe exposure data of interest by collecting the exposure data from oneor more applicable households. For example, the learning householdinterface 132 (FIG. 1) may select donor data from the learninghouseholds including PM devices. In some examples, the example tuninghousehold interface 134 (FIG. 1) selects recipient data from the tuninghouseholds including MM devices. Additionally or alternatively, theexample collection engine 130 may select exposure data of interest toprocess from the example database 136 (FIG. 1).

At block 404, the example collection engine 130 selects a time period ofinterest to process. For example, the collection engine 130 may selectthe time period Monday from 7-7:15 pm to process the exposure data ofinterest. At block 406, the example collection engine 130 selects amedia station of interest to process.

At block 408, the example localized event engine 140 (FIGS. 1 and/or 2)calculates the total exposure minutes (e.g., tuning minutes, viewingminutes, etc.) for the selected media station during the selected timeperiod. For example, the exposure minutes calculator 200 (FIG. 2) maycalculate the total number of tuning minutes tuning to the selectedmedia station during the selected time period. In some examples, theexample exposure minutes calculator 200 calculates the total number ofviewing minutes viewing the selected media station during the selectedtime period.

At block 410, the example localized event engine 140 calculates thetotal number of exposure minutes for a plurality of media stationsduring the selected time period. For example, the exposure minutescalculator 200 may calculate the total number of tuning minutes tuningto the plurality of media stations during the selected time period. Insome examples, the example exposure minutes calculator 200 calculatesthe total number of viewing minutes viewing the plurality of mediastations during the selected time period.

At block 412, the example localized event engine 140 calculates apercentage of total exposure minutes for the selected media station withrespect to the total exposure minutes for the plurality of mediastations during the selected time period. For example, the exposurepercentage calculator 202 (FIG. 2) may calculate a percentage of thetotal number of tuning minutes for the selected media station withrespect to the total number of tuning minutes for the plurality of mediastations during the selected time period. In some examples, the exposurepercentage calculator 202 calculates a percentage of the total number ofviewing minutes for the selected media station with respect to the totalnumber of viewing minutes for the plurality of media stations during theselected time period.

At block 414, the example localized event engine 140 calculates thetotal number of households presenting the selected media station duringthe selected time period. For example, the exposure household totalcalculator 204 (FIG. 2) may calculate the total number of tuninghouseholds tuning to the selected media station during the selected timeperiod. In some examples, the example exposure household totalcalculator 204 calculates the total number of learning householdsviewing the selected media station during the selected time period.

At block 416, the example collection engine 130 determines if there isanother media station of interest to process. If, at block 416, theexample collection engine 130 determines that there is another mediastation of interest to process (e.g., the database 136 includes anunprocessed media station), control returns to block 406 to selectanother media station of interest to process. If, at block 416, theexample collection engine 130 determines that there is not another mediastation of interest to process (e.g., the example database 136 returns anull index, etc.), then, at block 418, the collection engine 130determines if there is another time period (e.g., quarter-hour, date,etc.) of interest to process. If, at block 418, the example collectionengine 130 determines that there is another time period of interest toprocess (e.g., the database 136 includes an unprocessed time period),control returns to block 404 to select another time period of interestto process. If, at block 418, the example collection engine 130determines that there is not another time period of interest to process(e.g., the example database 136 returns a null index, etc.), the exampleprogram 400 of FIG. 4 ends.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions 500 that may be executed by the example viewer assignmentengine 120 of FIG. 1 to determine if obtained exposure data is heavilyexposed. The example program 500 of FIG. 5 begins at block 502 when theexample collection engine 130 (FIG. 1) selects exposure data (e.g.,donor data, recipient data, etc.) of interest to process. In someexamples, the example collection engine 130 may select the exposure dataof interest by querying the exposure data from the example database 136(FIG. 1) for processing. At block 504, the example collection engine 130selects a time period of interest to process. For example, thecollection engine 130 may select the time period Monday from 7-7:15 pmto process the exposure data of interest. At block 506, the examplecollection engine 130 selects a media station of interest to process.

At block 508, the example localized event engine 140 (FIGS. 1 and/or 2)determines whether the exposure percentage satisfies the exposurepercentage threshold. For example, when processing tuning data, theheavy exposure classifier 206 (FIG. 2) may determine whether the tuningpercentage associated with the selected media station satisfies thetuning percentage threshold. When processing viewing data, the exampleheavy exposure classifier 206 may determine whether the viewingpercentage associated with the selected media station satisfies theviewing percentage threshold.

If, at block 508, the example localized event engine 140 determines thatthe exposure percentage does not satisfy the exposure percentagethreshold (e.g., the percentage of exposure minutes to the media stationis less than 20 percent, etc.), control proceeds to block 514 and theexample collection engine 130 determines if there is another mediastation of interest to process.

If, at block 508, the example localized event engine 140 determines thatthe exposure percentage does satisfy the exposure percentage threshold(e.g., the percentage of exposure minutes to the media stations isgreater than or equal to 20 percent, etc.), then, at block 510, thelocalized event engine 140 determines whether the total number ofhouseholds exposed to the media station satisfies the exposure householdtotal count threshold. For example, when processing tuning data, theheavy exposure classifier 206 may determine whether the total number oftuning households tuning to the selected media station satisfies thetuning household total count threshold. When processing viewing data,the example heavy exposure classifier 206 may determine whether thetotal number of learning households viewing the selected media stationsatisfies the learning household total count threshold.

If, at block 510, the example localized event engine 140 determines thatthe total number of households exposed to the media station does notsatisfy the exposure household count threshold (e.g., the total numberof households exposed to the selected media station is less than 60households, etc.), control proceeds to block 514 and the examplecollection engine 130 determines if there is another media station ofinterest to process. If, at block 510, the example localized eventengine 140 determines that the total number of exposure householdsexposed to the selected media station does satisfy the exposurehousehold count threshold (e.g., the total number of households exposedto the selected media station is at least 60 households, etc.), then, atblock 512, the localized event engine 140 identifies the selectedexposure data as heavily exposed data. For example, when processingtuning data, the heavy exposure classifier 206 may identify the selectedrecipient data as heavily tuned data. When processing viewing data, theexample heavy exposure classifier 206 may identify the selected donordata as heavily viewed data.

At block 514, the example collection engine 130 determines whether thereis another media station of interest to process. For example, thecollection engine 130 may query the database 136 to determine if thereis another media station of interest to process. If, at block 514, theexample collection engine 130 determines that there is another mediastation of interest to process (e.g., the database 136 includes anunprocessed media station), control returns to block 506 and thecollection engine 130 selects another media station of interest toprocess.

If, at block 514, the example collection engine 130 determines thatthere is not another media station of interest to process (e.g., thedatabase 136 returns a null index, etc.), then, at block 516, thecollection engine 130 determines whether there is another time period ofinterest to process. If, at block 516, the example collection engine 130determines that there is another time period of interest to process(e.g., the database 136 includes an unprocessed time period), controlreturns to block 504 to select another time period of interest toprocess. If, at block 516, the example collection engine 130 determinesthat there is not another time period of interest to process (e.g., thedatabase 136 returns a null index, etc.), the example program 500 ofFIG. 5 ends.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions 600 that may be executed by the example viewer assignmentengine 120 of FIG. 1 to calculate an example comparable media tuningpercentage. The example program 600 of FIG. 6 begins at block 602 whenthe example collection engine 130 (FIG. 1) selects recipient data ofinterest to process. In some examples, the example collection engine 130may select the recipient data of interest by querying the recipient datafrom the example database 136 (FIG. 1) for processing.

At block 604, the example collection engine 130 selects a time period ofinterest to process. For example, the collection engine 130 may selectthe time period Monday from 7:00-7:15 pm to process the selectedrecipient data. At block 606, the example localized event engine 140(FIGS. 1 and/or 2) identifies media comparable to the media identifiedin the selected recipient data. For example, the comparable mediaidentifier 208 (FIG. 2) may identify a comparable media station ofinterest and/or a comparable media genre of interest to a media stationand/or media genre identified in the selected recipient data.

At block 608, the example localized event engine 140 calculates thetotal number of tuning minutes for the identified comparable media. Forexample, the exposure minutes calculator 200 (FIG. 2) may sum the tuningminutes associated with the comparable media. At block 610, the examplelocalized event engine 140 calculates the total number of tuning minutesfor a plurality of media stations. For example, the exposure minutescalculator 200 may sum the total number of tuning minutes associatedwith the plurality of media stations.

At block 612, the example localized event engine 140 calculates apercentage of the total number of tuning minutes for the comparablemedia with respect to the total number of tuning minutes for theplurality of media stations (e.g., a comparable media tuningpercentage). For example, the comparable media percentage calculator 210(FIG. 2) may calculate the comparable media tuning percentage. At block614, the example collection engine 130 determines whether there is othercomparable media of interest to process. For example, the collectionengine 130 may query the database 136 to determine if there is othercomparable media association and/or comparable media match that thelocalized event engine 140 may process. If, at block 614, the examplecollection engine 130 determines that there is other comparable media ofinterest to process (e.g., the database 136 includes an unprocessedcomparable media association and/or comparable media match), controlreturns to block 606 and the collection engine 130 selects othercomparable media of interest to process. If, at block 614, the examplecollection engine 130 determines that there is not other comparablemedia of interest to process (e.g., the database 136 returns a nullindex, etc.), then, at block 616, the collection engine 130 determineswhether there is another time period of interest to process. If, atblock 616, the example collection engine 130 determines that there isanother time period of interest to process (e.g., the database 136includes an unprocessed time period), control returns to block 604 andthe collection engine 130 selects another time period of interest toprocess. If, at block 616, the example collection engine 130 determinesthat there is not another time period of interest to process (e.g., thedatabase 136 returns a null index, etc.), the example program 600 ofFIG. 6 ends.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions 700 that may be executed by the example viewer assignmentengine 120 of FIG. 1 to calculate an example comparable media viewingpercentage. The example program 700 of FIG. 7 begins at block 702 whenthe example collection engine 130 (FIG. 1) selects donor data ofinterest to process. In some examples, the example collection engine 130may select the donor data of interest by querying the donor data fromthe example database 136 (FIG. 1) for processing. At block 704, theexample collection engine 130 selects a time period of interest toprocess. For example, the collection engine 130 may select the timeperiod Monday from 7:00-7:15 pm to process the selected donor data.

At block 706, the example localized event engine 140 (FIGS. 1 and/or 2)identifies media comparable to the media identified in selected donordata. For example, the comparable media identifier 208 (FIG. 2) mayidentify a comparable media station of interest and/or a comparablemedia genre of interest to a media station and/or media genre identifiedin the selected donor data.

At block 708, the example localized event engine 140 calculates thetotal number of viewing minutes for the identified comparable media. Forexample, the exposure minutes calculator 200 (FIG. 2) may sum theviewing minutes associated with the comparable media. At block 710, theexample localized event engine 140 calculates the total number ofviewing minutes for a plurality of media stations. For example, theexposure minutes calculator 200 may sum the total number of viewingminutes associated with the plurality of media stations. At block 712,the example localized event engine 140 calculates a percentage of thetotal number of viewing minutes for the comparable media with respect tothe total number of viewing minutes for the plurality of media stations(e.g., a comparable media viewing percentage). For example, thecomparable media percentage calculator 210 (FIG. 2) may calculate thecomparable media viewing percentage.

At block 714, the example collection engine 130 determines whether thereis other comparable media of interest to process. For example, thecollection engine 130 may query the database 136 to determine if thereis other comparable media association and/or comparable media match thatthe localized event engine 140 may process. If, at block 714, theexample collection engine 130 determines that there is other comparablemedia of interest to process (e.g., the database 136 includes anunprocessed comparable media association and/or comparable media match),control returns to block 706 and the collection engine 130 selects othercomparable media of interest to process.

If, at block 714, the example collection engine 130 determines thatthere is not other comparable media of interest to process (e.g., thedatabase 136 returns a null index, etc.), then, at block 716, thecollection engine 130 determines whether there is another time period ofinterest to process. If, at block 716, the example collection engine 130determines that there is another time period of interest to process(e.g., the database 136 includes an unprocessed time period), controlreturns to block 704 and the collection engine 130 selects another timeperiod of interest to process. If, at block 716, the example collectionengine 130 determines that there is not another time period of interestto process (e.g., the database 136 returns a null index, etc.), theexample program 700 of FIG. 7 ends.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions 800 that may be executed by the example viewer assignmentengine 120 of FIG. 1 to identify localized event data. The exampleprogram 800 begins at block 802 when the example collection engine 130(FIG. 1) selects recipient data and donor data of interest to process.For example, the collection engine 130 may select recipient data that isclassified as heavily exposed and/or heavily tuned. In some examples,the example collection engine 130 may select the recipient data anddonor data of interest by querying the recipient data donor data fromthe example database 136 (FIG. 1) for processing. At block 804, theexample collection engine 130 selects a time period of interest toprocess. For example, the collection engine 130 may select the timeperiod Monday from 7:00-7:15 pm to process the selected recipient dataand donor data of interest.

At block 806, the example localized event engine 140 identifies acomparable media of interest to process. For example, the comparablemedia identifier 208 (FIG. 2) may identify a comparable media stationand/or a comparable media genre to the media identified in the selectedrecipient data and donor data to process. At block 808, the examplelocalized event engine 140 calculates a differential between thecomparable media tuning percentage and the comparable media viewingpercentage (e.g., comparable media percentage differential). Forexample, the localized event recipient data identifier 212 (FIG. 2) maycalculate the comparable media percentage differential.

At block 810, the example localized event engine 140 determines whetherthe comparable media percentage differential satisfies the comparablemedia percentage differential threshold (e.g., the comparable mediapercentage differential is at least 5 percent, etc.). For example, thelocalized event recipient data identifier 212 may determine whether thecomparable media percentage differential satisfies the comparable mediapercentage differential threshold. If, at block 810, the examplelocalized event engine 140 determines that the comparable mediapercentage differential does not satisfy the comparable media percentagedifferential threshold (e.g., the comparable media percentagedifferential is less than 5 percent, etc.), control proceeds to block814 to determine if there is other comparable media of interest toprocess. If at block 810, the example localized event engine 140determines that the comparable media percentage differential satisfiesthe comparable media percentage differential threshold (e.g., thecomparable media percentage differential is at least 5 percent, etc.),then, at block 812, the localized event engine 140 identifies theselected recipient data as exhibiting localized event media consumptionbehavior. For example, the localized event recipient data identifier 212may identify the selected recipient data as LERC data.

At block 814, the example collection engine 130 determines whether thereis other comparable media of interest to process. For example, thecollection engine 130 may query the database 136 to determine if thereis other comparable media association and/or comparable media match thatthe localized event engine 140 may process. If, at block 814, theexample collection engine 130 determines that there is other comparablemedia of interest to process (e.g., the database 136 includes anunprocessed comparable media association and/or comparable media match),control returns to block 806 and the collection engine 130 selects othercomparable media of interest to process. If, at block 814, the examplecollection engine 130 determines that there is not other comparablemedia of interest to process (e.g., the database 136 returns a nullindex, etc.), then, at block 816, the collection engine 130 determineswhether there is another time period of interest to process. If, atblock 816, the example collection engine 130 determines that there isanother time period of interest to process (e.g., the database 136includes an unprocessed time period), control returns to block 804 andthe collection engine 130 selects another time period of interest toprocess. If, at block 816, the example collection engine 130 determinesthat there is not another time period of interest to process (e.g., thedatabase 136 returns a null index, etc.), the example program 800 ofFIG. 8 ends.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions 900 that may be executed by the example viewer assignmentengine 120 of FIG. 1 to calculate imputation probabilities for recipientdata and donor data for demographic groups. The example program 900 ofFIG. 9 begins at block 902 when the example collection engine 130(FIG. 1) selects recipient data of interest to process. For example, thecollection engine 130 may select recipient data that is classified asheavily exposed and/or heavily tuned from the database 136 (FIG. 1). Atblock 904, the example collection engine 130 selects a time period ofinterest to process. For example, the collection engine 130 may selectthe time period Monday from 7:00-7:15 pm to process the selectedrecipient data of interest. At block 906, the example localized eventengine 140 determines whether the selected recipient data is identifiedas LERC data. For example, the localized event recipient data identifier212 (FIG. 2) may determine whether the selected recipient data isidentified as LERC data.

If, at block 906, the example localized event engine 140 determines thatthe selected recipient data is identified as LERC data, then, at block908, the example localized event engine 140 identifies LEDC data. Forexample, the localized event donor data identifier 214 (FIG. 2) mayidentify LEDC data by determining if the viewer percentage and thelearning household total count satisfies the viewer percentage thresholdand the learning household total count threshold. If, at block 906, theexample localized event engine 140 determines that the selectedrecipient data is not LERC data (e.g., non-LERC data), then, at block910, the example localized event engine 140 identifies non-LEDC data.For example, the collection engine 130 may identify non-LEDC data.

At block 912, the example probability engine 160 (FIG. 1) calculatesprobabilities for the LERC data and the LEDC data or the non-LERC dataand the non-LEDC data. For example, when processing localized eventcutback data, the example localized event probability calculator 162(FIG. 1) calculates probabilities for the LERC data and the LEDC data.When processing non-localized event cutback data, the examplenon-localized event probability calculator 164 (FIG. 1) calculatesprobabilities for the non-LERC data and the non-LEDC data.

At block 914, the example collection engine 130 determines whether thereis another time period of interest to process. If, at block 914, theexample collection engine 130 determines that there is another timeperiod of interest to process (e.g., the database 136 includes anunprocessed time period), control returns to block 904 and thecollection engine 130 selects another time period of interest toprocess. If, at block 914, the example collection engine 130 determinesthat there is not another time period of interest to process (e.g., thedatabase 136 returns a null index, etc.), the example program 900 ofFIG. 9 ends.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions 1000 that may be executed by the example viewer assignmentengine 120 of FIG. 1 to identify LEDC data that matches at least onedemographic and/or dimension of the LERC data of interest. The exampleprogram 1000 of FIG. 10 begins at block 1002 when the example collectionengine 130 (FIG. 1) selects donor data for a DMA of interest to process.For example, the collection engine 130 may select donor data associatedwith the DMA of interest from the example database 136 (FIG. 1). Atblock 1004, the example collection engine 130 selects a time period ofinterest to process. For example, the collection engine 130 may selectthe time period Monday from 7:00-7:15 pm to process. At block 1006, theexample collection engine 130 selects a media station of interest toprocess. For example, the collection engine 130 may query the database136 for the media station of interest to process for the selected timeperiod. At block 1008, the example localized event engine 140 calculatesa percentage viewing the media station (e.g., a viewing percentage). Forexample, the exposure percentage calculator 202 (FIG. 2) may calculatethe viewing percentage. At block 1009, the example localized eventengine 140 calculates a number of households viewing the media station(e.g., a learning household total count). For example, the exposurehousehold total calculator 204 (FIG. 2) calculates the learninghousehold total count.

At block 1010, the example localized event engine 140 determines whetherthe viewing percentage satisfies a viewing percentage threshold. Forexample, the heavy exposure classifier 206 (FIG. 2) may determinewhether the viewing percentage satisfies the viewing percentagethreshold. If, at block 1010, the example localized event engine 140determines that the viewing percentage does not satisfy the viewingpercentage threshold (e.g., the viewing percentage is less than 20percent, etc.), control proceeds to block 1016 to determine if there isanother media station of interest to process. If, at block 1010, theexample localized event engine 140 determines the viewing percentagesatisfies the viewing percentage threshold (e.g., the viewing percentageis at least 20 percent, etc.), then, at block 1012, the localized eventengine 140 determines whether the learning household total countsatisfies the learning household total count threshold. For example, theheavy exposure classifier 206 may determine whether the learninghousehold total count satisfies the learning household total countthreshold.

If, at block 1012, the example localized event engine 140 determinesthat the learning household total count does not satisfy the learninghousehold total count threshold (e.g., the learning household totalcount is less than 60 households, etc.), control proceeds to block 1016to determine whether there is another media station of interest toprocess. If, at block 1012, the example localized event engine 140determines that the learning household total count satisfies thelearning household total count threshold (e.g., the learning householdstotal count is at least 60 households, etc.), then, at block 1014, thelocalized event engine 140 identifies the selected donor data as heavilyviewed data. For example, the localized event donor data identifier 214(FIG. 2) may identify the selected donor data as LEDC data.

At block 1016, the example collection engine 130 determines whetherthere is another media station of interest to process. If, at block1016, the example collection engine 130 determines that there is anothermedia station of interest to process (e.g., the database 136 includes anunprocessed media station), control returns to block 1006 and thecollection engine 130 selects another media station of interest toprocess. If, at block 1016, the example collection engine 130 determinesthat there is not another media station of interest to process (e.g.,the database 136 returns a null index, etc.), then, at block 1018, thecollection engine 130 determines whether there is another time period ofinterest to process.

If, at block 1018, the example collection engine 130 determines thatthere is another time period of interest to process (e.g., the database136 includes an unprocessed time period), control returns to block 1004and the collection engine 130 selects another time period of interest toprocess. If, at block 1018, the example collection engine 130 determinesthat there is not another time period of interest to process (e.g., thedatabase 136 returns a null index, etc.), the example program 1000 ofFIG. 10 ends.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart representative of example machine-readableinstructions 1100 that may be executed by the example viewer assignmentengine 120 of FIG. 1 to identify the most likely viewer for thepresented media for each tuning household. The example program 1100 ofFIG. 11 begins at block 1102 when the example collection engine 130(FIG. 1) selects recipient data of interest and donor data of interestto process. For example, the collection engine 130 may select recipientdata that is classified as heavily exposed and/or heavily tuned from thedatabase 136 (FIG. 1). At block 1104, the example collection engine 130selects a time period of interest to process. For example, thecollection engine 130 may select the time period Monday from 7:00-7:15pm to process the selected recipient data and donor data.

At block 1106, the example localized event engine 140 determines whetherthe selected recipient data exhibits localized event media consumptionbehavior. For example, the localized event recipient data identifier 212(FIG. 2) may evaluate a flag and/or a variable in the database 136associated with the selected recipient data to determine that theselected recipient data is identified as LERC data.

If, at block 1106, the example localized event engine 140 determinesthat the selected recipient data exhibits localized event mediaconsumption behavior, then, at block 1108, the example MLV engine 170(FIG. 1) matches the LERC data with corresponding LEDC data. In someexamples, the localized event MLV selector 172 (FIG. 1) matches the LERCdata with the corresponding LEDC data. For example, the localized eventMLV selector 172 may impute a media consumption behavior of a tuningpanelist in a first example tuning household 110 for a media consumptionbehavior of a viewing panelist in a first example learning household 108or a second example learning household 112. If, at block 1106, theexample localized event engine 140 determines that the selectedrecipient data does not exhibit localized event media consumptionbehavior, then, at block 1110, the example MLV engine 170 matchesnon-LERC data with corresponding non-LEDC data. In some examples, thenon-localized event MLV selector 174 (FIG. 1) matches the non-LERC datawith the corresponding non-LEDC data. For example, the non-localizedevent MLV selector 174 may impute a media consumption behavior of atuning panelist in a first example tuning household 112 for a mediaconsumption behavior of a viewing panelist in a first example learninghousehold 108 or a second example learning household 112.

At block 1112, the example collection engine 130 determines whetherthere is another time period of interest to process. If, at block 1112,the example collection engine 130 determines there is another timeperiod of interest to process (e.g., the database 136 includes anunprocessed time period), control returns to block 1104 to selectanother time period of interest to process. If, at block 1112, theexample collection engine 130 determines that there is not another timeperiod of interest to process (e.g., the database 136 returns a nullindex, etc.), the example program 1100 of FIG. 11 ends.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an example processor platform 1200 capableof executing the instructions of FIGS. 3-10 and/or 11 to implement theviewer assignment engine 120 of FIG. 1 and/or the example localizedevent engine 140 of FIGS. 1 and/or 2. The processor platform 1200 canbe, for example, a server, a personal computer, an Internet appliance, aset top box, or any other type of computing device.

The processor platform 1200 of the illustrated example includes aprocessor 1212. The processor 1212 of the illustrated example ishardware. For example, the processor 1212 can be implemented by one ormore integrated circuits, logic circuits, microprocessors or controllersfrom any desired family or manufacturer.

The processor 1212 of the illustrated example includes a local memory1213 (e.g., a cache). The processor 1212 of the illustrated exampleexecutes the instructions to implement the example viewer assignmentengine 120, the example collection engine 130, the example learninghousehold interface 132, the example tuning household interface 134, theexample localized event engine 140, the example probability engine 160,the example localized event probability calculator 162, the examplenon-localized event probability calculator 164, the example MLV engine170, the example localized event MLV selector 172, the examplenon-localized event MLV selector 174, the example exposure minutescalculator 200, the example exposure percentage calculator 202, theexample exposure household total calculator 204, the example heavyexposure classifier 206, the example comparable media identifier 208,the example comparable media percentage calculator 210, the examplelocalized event recipient data identifier 212 and the example localizedevent donor data identifier 214. The processor 1212 of the illustratedexample is in communication with a main memory including a volatilememory 1214 and a non-volatile memory 1216 via a bus 1218. The volatilememory 1214 may be implemented by Synchronous Dynamic Random AccessMemory (SDRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), RAMBUS DynamicRandom Access Memory (RDRAM) and/or any other type of random accessmemory device. The non-volatile memory 1216 may be implemented by flashmemory and/or any other desired type of memory device. Access to themain memory 1214, 1216 is controlled by a memory controller.

The processor platform 1200 of the illustrated example also includes aninterface circuit 1220. The interface circuit 1220 may be implemented byany type of interface standard, such as an Ethernet interface, auniversal serial bus (USB), and/or a PCI express interface.

In the illustrated example, one or more input devices 1222 are connectedto the interface circuit 1220. The input device(s) 1222 permit(s) a userto enter data and commands into the processor 1212. The input device(s)can be implemented by, for example, an audio sensor, a microphone, acamera (still or video), a keyboard, a button, a mouse, a touchscreen, atrack-pad, a trackball, isopoint and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more output devices 1224 are also connected to the interfacecircuit 1220 of the illustrated example. The output devices 1224 can beimplemented, for example, by display devices (e.g., a light emittingdiode (LED), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a liquid crystaldisplay, a cathode ray tube display (CRT), a touchscreen, a tactileoutput device, a printer and/or speakers). The interface circuit 1220 ofthe illustrated example, thus, typically includes a graphics drivercard, a graphics driver chip or a graphics driver processor.

The interface circuit 1220 of the illustrated example also includes acommunication device such as a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver, amodem and/or network interface card to facilitate exchange of data withexternal machines (e.g., computing devices of any kind) via a network1226 (e.g., an Ethernet connection, a digital subscriber line (DSL), atelephone line, coaxial cable, a cellular telephone system, etc.).

The processor platform 1200 of the illustrated example also includes oneor more mass storage devices 1228 for storing software and/or data.Examples of such mass storage devices 1228 include floppy disk drives,hard drive disks, compact disk drives, Blu-ray disk drives, RAIDsystems, and digital versatile disk (DVD) drives. The example massstorage 1228 implements the example database 136.

The coded instructions 1232 of FIGS. 3-10 and/or 11 may be stored in themass storage device 1228, in the volatile memory 1214, in thenon-volatile memory 1216, and/or on a removable tangible computerreadable storage medium such as a CD or DVD.

From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that the above disclosedmethods, apparatus and articles of manufacture facilitate improvingviewer assignment by adjusting for a local bias during localized events.The above disclosed localized event engine uses a heavy exposureclassifier to determine that the selected recipient data is heavilyexposed when (1) a tuning percentage satisfies a tuning percentagethreshold and (2) a tuning household total count satisfies a tuninghousehold total count threshold for selected recipient data. Thelocalized event engine uses a localized event recipient data identifierto determine that the selected recipient data is exhibiting localizedevent media consumption behavior when a difference between a comparablemedia tuning percentage and a comparable media viewing percentagesatisfies a threshold. The localized event engine makes an adjustmentfor the localized event media consumption behavior in the selectedrecipient data by using a localized event donor data identifier toidentify donor data experiencing similar localized event mediaconsumption behavior. The localized event engine uses a probabilityengine to calculate probabilities for the selected recipient data andthe identified donor data. The localized event engine uses a MLV engineto impute the localized event media consumption behavior of viewingpanelists associated with the identified donor data for the localizedevent media consumption behavior of tuning panelists associated with theselected recipient data to reduce imputation errors and to improve theaccuracy of the demographic composition of exposed media.

It is noted that this patent claims priority from India PatentApplication No. 201611019573, which was filed on Jun. 7, 2016, and ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacturehave been disclosed herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is notlimited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods,apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope ofthe claims of this patent.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus to impute media consumptionbehavior, the apparatus comprising: a localized event engine implementedwith hardware or at least one processor to: obtain first tuning data,which is associated with first panelists in first households havingtuned to first media in a first area, from media meters that are unableto identify respective ones of the first panelists; identify a subset ofthe first tuning data as heavy tuning data when (1) a number of thefirst households tuned to the first media in the first area satisfies afirst threshold and (2) a first percentage of exposure minutes tuned tothe first media in the first area satisfies a second threshold; anddetermine that the heavy tuning data represents a local bias when adifference between a second percentage of exposure minutes associatedwith second panelists having viewed second media in a second area and athird percentage of exposure minutes associated with third panelistshaving tuned to the second media in the first area satisfies a thirdthreshold, the second media being comparable media relative to the firstmedia; a probability engine implemented with hardware or at least oneprocessor to: calculate first viewing probabilities for the firstpanelists in a first one of the first households when the heavy tuningdata is determined to represent the local bias; and calculate secondviewing probabilities for fourth panelists in a plurality of secondhouseholds having household sizes corresponding to the first one of thefirst households, the fourth panelists associated with heavy viewingdata, the heavy viewing data obtained from people meters that are ableto identify respective ones of the fourth panelists; and a most likelyviewer engine implemented with hardware or at least one processor to:identify a matching one of the plurality of second households thatmatches the first one of the first households based on a differencebetween the first viewing probabilities and respective ones of thesecond viewing probabilities; and impute the heavy viewing dataassociated with the fourth panelists for tuning data included in theheavy tuning data when the matching one is identified.
 2. The apparatusas defined in claim 1, further including: a collection engine todetermine if a first household member of the first one of the firsthouseholds satisfies an age threshold, wherein the probability engine isto calculate third viewing probabilities for fifth panelists in a subsetof the plurality of second households when the first household member ofthe first one of the first households satisfies the age threshold, thesubset of the plurality of second households corresponding to householdsthat include at least one household member who satisfies the agethreshold.
 3. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, further including: acomparable media identifier to identify the second media, the secondmedia being comparable media to the first media; and a comparable mediapercentage calculator to: calculate the second percentage of exposureminutes, the second percentage being a first comparable media percentageassociated with exposure to the comparable media in the second area, thesecond percentage corresponding to a first total number of exposureminutes associated with viewing the second media with respect to aplurality of exposure minutes associated with viewing a plurality ofmedia associated with the second area; calculate the third percentage ofexposure minutes, the third percentage being a second comparable mediapercentage associated with exposure to the comparable media in the firstarea, the third percentage corresponding to a second total number ofexposure minutes tuned to the second media with respect to a pluralityof exposure minutes tuned to a plurality of media associated with thefirst area; and calculate the difference between the first comparablemedia percentage and the second comparable media percentage.
 4. A methodto impute media consumption behavior, the method comprising: obtaining,by executing an instruction with a processor, first tuning data, whichis associated with first panelists in first households having tuned tofirst media in a first area, from media meters that are unable toidentify respective ones of the first panelists; identifying, byexecuting an instruction with the processor, a subset of the firsttuning data as heavy tuning data when (1) a number of the firsthouseholds tuned to the first media in the first area satisfies a firstthreshold and (2) a first percentage of exposure minutes tuned to thefirst media in the first area satisfies a second threshold; determining,by executing an instruction with the processor, that the heavy tuningdata represents a local bias when a second percentage of exposureminutes associated with second panelists having viewed second media in asecond area and a third percentage of exposure minutes associated withthird panelists having tuned to the second media in the first areasatisfies a third threshold, the second media being comparable mediarelative to the first media; calculating, by executing an instructionwith the processor, first viewing probabilities for the first panelistsin a first one of the first households when the heavy tuning data isdetermined to represent the local bias; calculating, by executing aninstruction with the processor, second viewing probabilities for fourthpanelists in a plurality of second households having household sizescorresponding to the first one of the first households, the fourthpanelists associated with heavy viewing data, the heavy viewing dataobtained from people meters that are able to identify respective ones ofthe second panelists; identifying, by executing an instruction with theprocessor, a matching one of the plurality of second households thatmatches the first one of the first households based on a differencebetween the first viewing probabilities and respective ones of thesecond viewing probabilities; and imputing, by executing an instructionwith the processor, the heavy viewing data associated with the fourthpanelists for tuning data included in the heavy tuning data when thematching one is identified.
 5. The method as defined in claim 4, whereinthe first households and the plurality of second households each have arespective household size of two members.
 6. The method as defined inclaim 4, further including: determining if a first household member ofthe first one of the first households satisfies an age threshold; and inresponse to determining that the first household member of the first oneof the first households satisfies the age threshold, calculating thirdviewing probabilities for fifth panelists in a subset of the pluralityof second households, the subset of the plurality of second householdscorresponding to households that include at least one household memberwho satisfies the age threshold.
 7. A non-transitory computer readablestorage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause amachine to at least: obtain first tuning data, which is associated withfirst panelists in first households having tuned to first media in afirst area, from media meters that are unable to identify respectiveones of the first panelists; identify a subset of the first tuning dataas heavy tuning data when (1) a number of the first households tuned tothe first media in the first area satisfies a first threshold and (2) afirst percentage of exposure minutes tuned to the first media in thefirst area satisfies a second threshold; determine that the heavy tuningdata represents a local bias when a second percentage of exposureminutes associated with second panelists having viewed second media in asecond area and a third percentage of exposure minutes associated withthird panelists having tuned to the second media in the first areasatisfies a third threshold, the second media being comparable mediarelative to the first media; calculate first viewing probabilities forthe first panelists in a first one of the first households when theheavy tuning data is determined to represent the local bias; calculatesecond viewing probabilities for fourth panelists in a plurality ofsecond households having household sizes corresponding to the first oneof the first households, the fourth panelists associated with heavyviewing data, the heavy viewing data obtained from people meters thatare able to identify respective ones of the second panelists; identify amatching one of the plurality of second households that matches thefirst one of the first households based on a difference between thefirst viewing probabilities and respective ones of the second viewingprobabilities; and impute the heavy viewing data associated with thefourth panelists for tuning data included in the heavy tuning data whenthe matching one is identified.
 8. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium as defined in claim 7, wherein the first households andthe plurality of second households each have a respective household sizeof two members.
 9. The non-transitory computer readable storage mediumas defined in claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed, causethe machine to: determine if a first household member of the first oneof the first households satisfies an age threshold; and calculate thirdviewing probabilities for fifth panelists in a subset of the pluralityof second households when the first household member of the first one ofthe first households satisfies the age threshold, the subset of theplurality of second households corresponding to households that includeat least one household member who satisfies the age threshold.
 10. Theapparatus as defined in claim 1, further including a heavy exposureclassifier to: determine that the number of the first households tunedto the first media in the first area satisfies the first threshold, thefirst threshold being a household number threshold, wherein respectiveones of the first households have respective household sizes of twomembers; and determine that the first percentage of exposure minutestuned to the first media in the first area satisfies the secondthreshold, the first percentage being a total number of exposure minutestuned to the first media with respect to a plurality of exposure minutestuned to a plurality of media in the first area, the second thresholdbeing an exposure percentage threshold.
 11. The apparatus as defined inclaim 1, further including a localized event donor data identifier toidentify viewing data, which is associated with the fourth panelists inthe plurality of second households, as the heavy viewing data when (1) anumber of the plurality of second households viewing third media in athird area satisfies the first threshold and (2) a percentage of viewingminutes viewing the third media in the third area satisfies the secondthreshold.
 12. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, further including acollection engine to collect data associated with panelists in the firstarea and the second area from the media meters and the people meters.13. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein ones of the mediameters are arranged to monitor media presentation devices associatedwith the first panelists.
 14. The method as defined in claim 4, furtherincluding: determining that the number of the first households tuned tothe first media in the first area satisfies the first threshold, thefirst threshold being a household number threshold, wherein respectiveones of the first households have respective household sizes of twomembers; and determining that the first percentage of exposure minutestuned to the first media in the first area satisfies the secondthreshold, the first percentage being a total number of exposure minutestuned to the first media with respect to a plurality of exposure minutestuned to a plurality of media in the first area, the second thresholdbeing an exposure percentage threshold.
 15. The method of claim 4,further including identifying viewing data, which is associated with thefourth panelists in the plurality of second households, as the heavyviewing data when (1) a number of the plurality of second householdsviewing third media in a third area satisfies the first threshold and(2) a percentage of viewing minutes viewing the third media in the thirdarea satisfies the second threshold.
 16. The method as defined in claim4, wherein the first tuning data includes a number of minutes creditedto a media presentation device tuned to the first media in the firsthouseholds.
 17. The method as defined in claim 4, wherein ones of themedia meters are arranged to monitor media presentation devicesassociated with the first panelists.
 18. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium as defined in claim 7, further includinginstructions that, when executed, cause the machine to: determine thatthe number of the first households tuned to the first media in the firstarea satisfies the first threshold, the first threshold being ahousehold number threshold, wherein respective ones of the firsthouseholds have respective household sizes of two members; and determinethat the first percentage of exposure minutes tuned to the first mediain the first area satisfies the second threshold, the first percentagebeing a total number of exposure minutes tuned to the first media withrespect to a plurality of exposure minutes tuned to a plurality of mediain the first area, the second threshold being an exposure percentagethreshold.
 19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium asdefined in claim 7, further including instructions that, when executed,cause the machine to identify viewing data, which is associated with thefourth panelists in the plurality of second households, as the heavyviewing data when (1) a number of the plurality of second householdsviewing third media in a third area satisfies the first threshold and(2) a percentage of viewing minutes viewing the third media in the thirdarea satisfies the second threshold.
 20. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium as defined in claim 7, wherein the first tuningdata includes a number of minutes credited to a media presentationdevice tuned to the first media in the first households.